Calling Your Attacks

"No good! The name's too long, and it doesn't sound good at all!"

TROPE... DESCRIPTIOOOOOON!!

If you can do something more impressive than just throw a punch, your attack(s) must have an equally impressive name. More than that, you have to call it out as you launch the attack. It doesn't matter if it's a martial arts move, a magical spell or your secret superweapon, if you can't say its name, it just isn't nearly as cool or effective. Also, expect plenty of echoing to come with it, and (if a fighter is feeling particulary bombastic) dramatic... * pauses* ... WITHAYELLATTHEEND! A standard feature of practically every Magical Girl, high fantasy, or martial arts anime.

The origins of this phenomenon are at least Older Than Print, and probably much older. The idea that words can grant power is a cross cultural phenomenon that shows up frequently in the earliest tales of swords and sorcery. Members of the Sinitic ethnolinguistic family in particular tend to ascribe special importance to the power of written characters, and the belief that special words can invoke control over supernatural power permeates their folklore (just ask your local Shinto, Buddhist, or Taoist practitioner if they've donated to a shrine or temple to have a talisman written lately). The magic power of spoken and written words was also a key concept in Ancient Egyptian religion and Ritual Magic.

In terms of realism, this has some ground as traditional and even some current practitioners of martial arts hold the belief that accompanying statements and/or vocal noises alongside execution build up their chi, thereby increasing the power and efficacy of their moves and techniques. Put less spiritually, saying a phrase at the right time during an attack ensures proper breathing. A call used for this reason is known as a Kiai. The naming of attacks also served a more practical purpose as many martial arts schools, Chinese ones in particular, used to be secret societies. The passing down of techniques was done orally and giving them esoteric names often facilitated this transmission. In addition, kiai has the potential to startle the opponent and give you an opening.

This is also often combined with a spellcaster's Invocation, with the final part of the incantation being the name of the spell, cried out just as the spell is triggered (Spirit of Fire, gather into my hand and incinerate my enemies! FIREBALL!). A character who grows in power will eventually graduate to being able to do the initial incantation mentally, turning the final trigger into this trope completely.

A variant has a Combat Commentator recognizing the attacks being used (usually with a line like "That's the legendary something-or-other technique!") and explaining them to any other characters watching (and the audience, of course).

Another variant, primarily found in video games, displays the attack name on screen as it is being executed, without a vocal "call". This typically happens in games where there is no voice acting; the call is implied. In fact, flamboyant attack/technique names are pretty much a trope in and of themselves.

To be fair, though, used properly and skillfully it can be an effective and compact narrative device. There isn't really a simpler way to let the audience know that Captain Kirk's next phaser blast isn't supposed to kill the alien, or that Judge Dredd's next bullet is supposed to go "boom". Especially in manga, it's particularly difficult to let the reader know what special attacks are used without either motion or color, so having the characters say it is probably the most practical solution.

For a long time, only attacks that were meant to end the fight (or at least devastatingly powerful) were worthy of calls. Two well-known examples are Kenshiro spelling out the spectacular death he just dealt to his foe and Dragon Ball's signature "KA...ME...HA...ME...HAAAAAA!!". A few pro wrestlers did this as well ("Power bomb!"). It wasn't until the advent of fighting games, particularly Street Fighter 2, that shouting out every little spinkick and ki ball became standard practice.

Sister Trope of By the Power of Greyskull, Invocation, Big Word Shout, Screaming Warrior, Roaring Predator. In a group, it sometimes overlap with Attack Pattern Alpha.

For a very villainous variation, see To the Pain. For battle cries or shouts, see Kiai and Battle Cry. When violently subverted, it's Talk to the Fist. (Mostly) has nothing to do with Calling Your Orgasms. When your opponent is calling your attacks, it's Combat Clairvoyance or Kung Fu Clairvoyance.

TROPE... EXAMPLES!!

Anime... and MANGAAAAAA!!

  • We could save you a great amount of time and just say every Magical Girl, Shonen, and Super Robot anime ever, but if you prefer specific examples, keep reading.
  • Naturally, we gotta start with Kouji Kabuto, the protagonist of Mazinger Z, who may very well have started this. "Rocketto Punch!" "Breasto Fire!"
    • And Tetsuya Tsurugi, main character of the sequel, Great Mazinger. "Mazinger Blade!" "Thunder Break!"
    • And Duke Fleed, main character of the SECOND sequel, UFO Robo Grendizer: "Space Thunder!" "Melt Shower!" "Antigravitatory Storm!".
  • Who can forget good old Space Deputy Kogoro From Keroro Gunsou?
  • Hiroshi Shiba from Kotetsu Jeeg: "MAGNETO PRESSURE!", "DYNAMITE PUNCH!", "SPIN STORM!"
  • Akira hibiki from Raideen: "GOD GORGON! MULTIPLE ARROWS!"
  • Hyoma Aoi -- and his team -- from Combattler V: "BATTLE GULEGGER!" "CHOUDENJI TATSUMAKI!", "CHOUDENJI SPIN!"
  • Kenichi Go from Voltes V: "TENKUKEN!"
  • Justified in Getter Robo: the reason attacks are called out is because the robots' operating system uses them to ACTIVATE the attacks, which makes a LOT of sense. What's easier, shouting "GETTER BEAM!" and having your robot fire? Or having to press switches, throw levers and turn knobs to do the same?
    • Only in the Shin Getter Robo vs. Neo Getter Robo OVA. The other series don't bother with this, or at least don't mention it outright.
  • From Gintama: Domestic Violence!
  • Gunbuster
    • Noriko calls almost every special attack she and Gunbuster do. She screams before calling her attacks as well. She even gets Cool Big Sis Kazumi to help her call the Super Inazuma Kick.
    • Bonus points for calling her attacks in English. "HOMINGU REEZAAAA!" "BUSTAAA MISSAIRU!"
      • But Noriko is also the biggest Otaku in outer space (subtly implied in the anime itself outright stated in the extras). So her attack names are likely partly due to fangirl-ism. Thought that still has to make one wonder about Jung.
      • Definitely fangirl-ism, as Date Ryuusei of Super Robot Wars does the exact same thing even in a Real Robot.
  • The Dragon Ball series are famous for this.
    • Parodied with Hercule/Mr. Satan, a normal human who shouts a ridiculously long name for a normal punch.
      • Not only that, he forgets what he called it the first time when he needs to say it again, so he calls it something else that just as ridiculously long.
    • In a tournament arc when Goku was a kid, he called a punch, a kick, or a chop with Rock, Paper, or Scissors. When his opponent revealed that he knew the technique, and was able to defend against it (having actually been the man who trained Goku's grandfather), he switched it up.
    • The majorly cocky "Gotenks" who actually created a huge list of attacks with comedic names. None of them were any bit more successful than Hercule's/Mr.Satan's. Except maybe those two attacks. But those didn't really happen.
    • Dragonball Z loves to parody this trope. Reecoom, a member of the Ginyu Force, has a silly name for every one of his attacks.
    • Krillin, in keeping with his Butt Monkey status, is the only character who seems to actually be hindered by calling his attacks. He has what would be an incredibly broken technique, the Kienzan, that can literally cut through anything (the only time it ever hit yet failed was in Filler). Even people vastly stronger than he is. Naturally, since he's not The Hero, Krillin never lands a good hit with it, in part because he's compelled to loudly yell "KIENZAN!" whenever he uses it...even when trying to ambush somebody from behind!
    • Lampshaded in Team Four Star's Dragonball Z Abridged with Piccolo pointing out how shouting out their attack strategy for the enemy to hear probably isn't the best idea.
    • Toriyama himself has said in an old interview that he doesn't particularly like it when characters shout attack names before performing said attack, saying that "in a battle of life and death, there's no way you can say the name of each technique. You'd be done in while yelling the technique's name." The aforementioned Mr. Satan and Gotenks are examples of Toriyama lampooning this.
      • The best example of the lampooning is Recoome's most powerful attack: the Recoome Ultra Fighting Miracle Bomber. Goku intervenes and attacks Recoome in the middle of calling out this attack! As a result, the only way to see this attack is to perform it in the Dragon Ball Z games.
    • There's also the most well known example: KAAAAAAMEEEEEEHAAAAAAMEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAAAAA!
    • Yet averted with Future Trunks who does not call his attacks during a fight. They get named in the video games.
  • In Tower of God, Ignition Weapos like Black March, Narumada and Green April will only release their special abilities when their name in combined with the command to attack. Since this happens in the heat of battle, there will be shouts.
  • Bastard!! Ankoku no Hakai Shin feature this a lot; all spells and techniques are shouted before casting or using them.
    • "Burning in the depths of the pits of darkness, let the fires of hell take you, Let the fires become my sword and strike you down! Venom!"
  • Mahou Sensei Negima
    • While the series is normally full of attack-calling, the trope is parodied by Jack Rakan, who invents then charges absurd amounts for new, unique Finishing Moves. One of his ideas for Negi is "Extreme Ruler Burning Heat Thundering Dragon Erupting Flash Demon Tempest Rakan Fist", which he immediately discards for being too long to use in a fight.
    • Later on, we see him during a battle, making up names as he goes, such as "Hidden Blade Surfing Rakan! (Newly Named)".
      • And the Rakan For-The-Hell-Of-It Right Hand Punch.
      • Most of his called moves are "(newly named)", except any kind of skirt flipping or general female harassment ones.
      • He even renames existing moves; such as when he renamed "Shinmeiryuu Hidden Technique, Zanmaken: Ni no Tachi" as In Celebration of my First Kiss with Ojou-sama Special! so that Setsuna could use it without worrying that the technique was too high for someone of her status to use.
      • A list for Rakan here.
    • Likewise, during the first Tournament Arc, when the host specifies that spell incantations are forbidden, one of the martial artists participating in the event asks if Calling Your Attacks is allowed... and everyone responds with glee when he is informed that it is.
    • Turns out Nagi wasn't much better than Rakan when it comes to this.

Stupid Dad PUNCH!

  • Everyone in Saint Seiya.
  • In the Pokémon anime, it's the trainers who call the attacks to order the Mons.
    • The Team Rocket trio's Meowth typically calls out his own attacks. This leads to one wondering if there's any difference between him clawing people's faces, and him clawing people's faces while yelling "Fury Swipes," each time leaving identical marks.
      • In one episode where he joins a battle he actually jumps back to the trainer's position and issues commands to himself before jumping back in and doing the attack.
    • New character Bianca has a habit of calling out attacks that the Pokémon doesn't even know.
    • In Pokémon Mystery Dungeon TV Specials, most talking Pokémon call their attacks.
  • The cast of Ranma ½ call their attacks a lot.
    • While most of the time this is played straight, there is the strange matter surrounding "Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken", roughly translated as "Imperial Broiled Chestnuts Roasting in an Open Fire". That is the name of a training exercise to increase hand speed, but it led to Ranma using an unnamed Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs attack in all his subsequent battles. The creators of the anime and video games mistook the training's name for the attack's name, and so Ranma began to call out "Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken" when he used the attack. He actually only calls it out a few times in the anime (and even does it once in the manga); it's in the fighting games where he shouts "Amaguriken!" every time he uses it.
    • And naturally, characters in Ranma ½: The Abridged Chronicles tend to call out their attacks as well... usually "Boot to the head."
    • Also heavily spoofed by many of the attacks Genma comes up with—typically the more frightening the name, the more ridiculous the "attack". For example, "Howl of the Wild Hound" is yelling insults at your opponent like a dog behind a fence, while "Crouch of the Wild Tiger" is bowing and scraping for mercy.
    • Not to mention the Saotome Style Ultimate Technique, which consists of screaming "ULTIMATE TECHNIQUE!" really loud, then running away while your opponent is still surprised, and thinking up a new strategy.
  • In Sailor Moon attacks can be thrown without naming, if one needs the element of surprise. One episode had Minako / Sailor Venus impersonating Sailor Moon—in this case, she used her own normal attack, but with a different incantation. They do name their attacks most of the time, though, leading to phrases such as "Starlight Honeymoon Therapy Kiss!" and "Star Gentle Uterus!". The Codename wa Sailor V manga gave Minako a lot of such phrases—some are genuine magical incantations, some are just said for extra coolness. Such incantations also tend to be spoofed in side stories ("Garlic Attack!").
    • Not only did the English dub rename every attack (despite already being in English) they also were horribly inconsistent. Giving attacks a name they gave a different attack, using something completely unrelated ("Mars Fire Ball Charge" in place of "Evil Spirits Begone!") or just plain wrong! Dic was fairly constant about what they were called despite being renamed (aside from a few early oddities like "Mars Fireball Charge"), while Cloverway would change episode to episode, Such as "Venus Love-Me Chain" being called "Venus Love-Me-chain" or "Venus Love-Me Chain Smash" or "Venus Love-Me Chain Encircle".
  • Magic Knight Rayearth prefers this trope even though characters prove from time to time that it's not necessary and that they can merely summon magic at will (as shown a few times in battles between Nova and Hikaru).
    • On the other hand calling the Rune Gods names' is a must for the girls' transformations. You'll end up hearing RAYEAAAAARTH! three times per episode due to that little tidbit...
    • The dub changes attack names to the point where 'Lightning Call!' becomes 'Light ball! Come forth!'. Even two word attacks like Hikaru's 'Fire Arrow' get an IYAAAAAAH! (complete with capital letters) at the end. The attacks come out sounding at the very least strange.
  • One Piece
    • Every character who makes an attack more complicated than shooting a gun or punching... and sometimes even then; this includes poking them with a finger of course the "poke" has the force of a bullet behind it. Occasionally subverted by Usopp, who will miscall his attacks to throw his enemies off.
    • Usopp subverts this trope further in his and Chopper's battle with Mr. 4 and Ms. Merry Christmas when he calls out an attack while impersonating Ms. Merry Christmas's voice, tricking Mr. 4 into swinging his bat into his own partner's face.
    • Completely averted by Mihawk, who is one of the few characters who DOESN'T call his attacks.
    • Also averted by Don Krieg, who is famous as a master of sneak attacks and duplicity. Krieg has names for his various attacks, but they are given in public Just Between You and Me speeches after he has already used them. He also pulls Usopp's trick of announcing the "wrong" attack to throw opponents off guard.
    • On the way to Enies Lobby, Luffy and Zoro debate what they're going to call the combination of Luffy's Gum-Gum Cannon with Zoro's 108 Pound Cannon, and settle on "Gum-Gum Three Hundred Pound Cannon" because Luffy decided that doubling 108 and saying "Two Hundred and Sixteen" was too long.
    • Lampshaded during the Zoro/Kaku fight where Kaku, just getting used to his recently acquired devil fruit Giraffe powers, starts making up names on the fly for his moves, One of them is called pasta machine.
    • As noted with Mihawk, this gets played with when it comes to more serious characters or those who are...well...above calling their attacks. Whitebeard, a decent chunk of his crew, the Admirals (from time to time), and a decent amount of others all display this.
    • Zeo from the Fishman Island arc does this, while invisible. Brook ends up attacking the source of the voice. Yes, Zeo's not very smart.
  • In Yu Yu Hakusho, not only are attacks called, but the first time an attack appears, its name is also given in a caption, often accompanied by a freeze frame while the narrator explains the nature and history of the attack. The narrator is at least justified in that the series is just Someone re-watching all the tapes of Yusuke's cases and adding in commentary.
  • May Wong from Kaleido Star almost always calls out a name whenever she's doing a stunt, and anything else for that matter.
  • "Gekigan Punch" and all the other attack names used by some pilots in Martian Successor Nadesico from its Show Within a Show, Gekiganger 3. In actual fact, the attacks in question are perfectly ordinary science-fiction (or mundane!) devices like Deflector Shields and machine guns, and the pilots call their attacks for the simple reason that they happen to be Otaku. One (non-anime-fan) character in the show actually wonders whether the weapons are voice-activated.
    • In Super Robot Wars, Gai (and only Gai) has all of his Aestivalis' attacks renamed to things like "Gekigan Shoot", "Gekigan Sword", "Super Gekigan Sword", and so on, on the menu. Akito's Distortion Attack / Punch, and only that attack, is labeled Gekigan Flare.
  • Spoofed in Rune Soldier Louie: Louie is little more than a brawler to start with, but he's already named his basic right cross; he calls this attack enough that it practically counts as a Catch Phrase ("Louie Punch!").
  • Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha doesn't always call her attacks, but her computerized magical wand does, combining this trope and Robo Speak.
  • The girls in Yumeria made up calls to go with their attacks because it was traditional for Sentai/Magical Girls.
  • Nearly every Humongous Mecha series has at least one scene where the pilot of a Mech will call out the attack, even if merely by its name. For example "High mega cannon! HASSHA!"—basically, "High Mega Cannon! FIRE!"—all the way up to Sousei no Aquarion's Mugen Punch (Infinite Punch) -- a punch with effectively infinite range (in one episode, it actually punches an enemy into the surface of the moon, becoming the "Moon's Surface Infinite Punch" if I recall) among others. By far the most common called attack in the Humongous Mecha genre however is the good old Rocket Punch, where the forearm detaches and flies at the enemy before returning.
    • The Super Robot Wars series have tried to integrate this silliness into the traditionally more realistic Real Robot genre by making these attacks voice-activated. Then there's mecha Fanboy turned mecha pilot Ryuusei Date, who not only calls out his attacks, but will often rename them. If the player assigns him to pilot a different mecha, he'll rename that mecha's attacks too. In the most recent games, his "disease" has apparently spread to Mai Kobayashi ("Queen of Kicks") and Latooni Subota ("Tonfa Princess"), both of whom adopted this habit because they have a crush on him.
    • Lampshaded to a degree in the anime adaptation Super Robot Wars OG: The Inspector episode in which Kyousuke demonstrates his now (in}famous "Ultimate Gespenst Kick", as just before he launches the attack an on-screen prompt actually instructs him to shout the attack name, which the normally stoic Kyousuke does with dramatic hot-bloodedness.
    • The Macross functions as a truly epic-scale Humongous Mecha for purposes of this trope, including a Megaton Punch attack that is always called. The climactic moment of the war in both the series and The Movie involves another called attack. Although this is somewhat justified, as a commanding officer is giving an order to be carried out by the crew.
    • For that matter, firing the main cannon of the Cool Ship always involves a direct (and yelled) order from the captain, which typically names the weapon explicitly. "Lohengrin, FIRE!"
    • However, this trope is not only justified but necessary for attacks with a particularly large effective range—it does the good guys no good to shoot their own troops, and calling it out can be a sort of warning.
    • Sousei no Aquarion is especially Egregious about this; not only do the characters call their attacks, but pretty much every time a never-before-seen attack is performed by the heroes, a special frame comes up displaying the name of the attack. Examples.
  • Brilliant, brilliant spoof: the Marmalade Boy movie features a memorable scene where five small neighbourhood boys encounter the protagonist as she's practicing tennis, and pretend to be a Super Sentai Five-Man Band, including a formal introduction of the entire team and lots of highly stylized called Ki Attacks. The teenage girl in question decides to be the Cool Big Sis, and cheerfully pretends to be the Monster of the Week in response.
  • Done in all the incarnations of Digimon—to the point that some have theorized a Digimon literally cannot attack without saying the attack's name. They added several attack calls in the dub. Power Echoes is in full effect, too.
    • A notable exception is in Digimon Frontier where the dubbers removed an attack's call. In this case, Kazemon's Ass Kicks You attack was never formally announced (though it was informally referred to as a "Love Tap" the first time it was used); presumably because they didn't want to call extra attention to a Stripperiffic character doing a butt-thrust. Since it made it seem like Kazemon did this on her own apart from her standard attack list, this made for weird Dub Text.
      • Later in the series this trope is averted when Magna Garurumon attacked Cherubimon in the middle of him calling his "Storm of Judgement" attack.
    • In earlier episodes of Digimon Adventure, Agumon didn't call out "Pepper Flame/Breath", instead simply making an enthusiastic-sounding roar noise (mmMMM-PAAH!)
    • This is kind of strange at some points where they do it when their mouths are full of fire or whatever they're using at the time.
      • Indramon calls his Horn of Desolation attack while blowing the horn. It should be noted, however, that whatever they look like, Digimon are actually computer data.
    • In moments of Dangerously Genre Savvy, Angewomon in Digimon Adventure has cut off another Digimon mid-sentence with her own attack. Yes, she still calls out the attack, but she interrupts them to do so and says it faster than they did. Both cases set up a killing blow, incidentally.
  • The special attacks of the twelve zodiac family in Sumomomo Momomo need long incantation-like names to be yelled before use. Amusingly enough, the names seem to be made up each time; rarely are the same ones used twice.
  • Spoofed in Scrapped Princess, where the mechanics of magic rely on the user speaking the name of the spell aloud; the magician Raquel is virtually unbeatable in a magical fight because her spells all have really short names.
    • The original novels explain that she's actually running an emulator spell all the time which enables her to cast long spells with a few words (think of it as a macro) but requires an incredible skill and capacity for magic.
  • Motoko on Love Hina always does this.
  • Excel Saga has a group of "super" civil-employees whose attacks are activated by a combination of brightly colored spandex clothing and yelling out nonsensical English phrases. Some gems include: "BEST ELECTRON!" "SCOT BOMBER!" "CATHARSIS WAVE!" (Ironically enough, it was used to hurt people.)
    • Excel herself occasionally shouts "Excel kick" and similar lines when kicking or using other attacks.
  • In Naruto, this may or may not be required to pull off the series's "jutsus"; certainly, Naruto himself seems to be able to do his Kage Bunshin with a single hand gesture when calling the attack would take too long (like, say, in midair). It should be noted that like Rurouni Kenshin below, most of the time in the manga the name of the character's attack will appear in the panel, but they don't seem to be actually calling it (their mouth will be closed and it isn't in a speech bubble but just floats in the air). Likewise, in the anime it is sometimes blatantly obvious that they are just thinking it, since their mouths aren't moving. There are also several jutsu's where they can't possibly be saying it, because they have a wire / scroll/ giant ball of fire in their mouth at the time.
    • Shikamaru may have lost a fight (Chuunin exams) because he may have done one attack name (or after-attack explanation) too many; his technique burns chakra quickly and he would have won if he had, say, 5 more seconds of it. Shikamaru is too clever for such an error; one would wonder if he lost on purpose to avoid (what a drag!) more combat or if attack names are more of a strong compulsion/tic.
    • Subverted when Ino fakes Sakura out by calling her possession technique (complete with sound effect!). Sakura dodges... into a trap, which holds her down so Ino can use the real technique.
    • Sort of justified with Naruto's Uzumaki Naruto Rendan. Word of God states that the attack relies a lot on the timing of each clone's (and the original's) attack. Naruto has them shout his name to let his other clones know it's their turn to attack.
    • Sort of lampshaded in the anime, when Tobi uses an "attack" he came up with right on the spot that involves darting around in front of people while feinting an attack to keep them from going onward which, after thinking for a second, he calls the "Whack-A-Mole Technique".
    • DYNAMIC ENTRY!
    • During the 'Joint Shinobi Army Versus Madara' arc, this trope is made logical by a majority of the fights worth watching being against friendly edo tensei confetti zombies who still have their own minds, but are compelled to attack as the technique user, Kabuto, wishes. Several fights had all the dramatic jutsu splashes and quick movement of a normal ninja battle...and moments like Itachi popping up behind Killerbee and announcing "behind you" even as he attacks. To help out.
      • The former kage do a lot of explaining their own abilities, even.
      • This zombie situation also gives us awesome justification for Talking Is a Free Action, as well as a subversion when Itachi hit Naruto and Bee with a fireball in the middle of a civil conversation, and Naruto had to be reminded that he wasn't in control of his fighting and couldn't be blamed for the timing.
  • While Himechan no Ribon isn't a fighting manga/anime Hime-chan does shout various things when fighting, such as "SPECIAL HIMEKO KICK!".
  • Brilliantly spoofed in the anime Blazing Exchange Student. The hero's opponent and rival in love uses his 'Insect-Squashing Punch' to knock the hero out. Later, when the hero is preparing for a Rocky training, his stuff gets run over by a train, inspiring him to create a new attack for the rematch and prepares to demolish his rival with his 'Takizawa Kokugen (Railway) Punch', only to be promptly K.O'd by the 'Sacchu (Insect-Squashing) Punch' again because it takes less time to say. The girl they're trying to impress, however, is dissatisfied by the name 'Insect-Killing Punch', and convinces the rival to rename it the 'Ibuki Finishing Blow Golden Victory Finish', and he goes into the next match with tears pouring down his face because he knows he'll be clobbered before he can finish saying it.
  • Spoofed in Muteki Kanban Musume, where the heroine defeats one opponent simply by calling one move and executing another while the opponent prepares for the move she called.
  • The titular mecha from GEAR Fighter Dendoh has reality itself declare the name of the attack, in stylized lettering visible only to the audience.
  • Bleach takes this a step further, by explaining that knowing the name of an attack is required in order to access its full power. This is especially true for kidô spells, the strongest of which cannot be used properly without reciting an extremely long-winded incantation.
    • This is used sometimes to evidence how powerful someone (usually an enemy or villain) is powerful by showing someone blowing stuff up with an uncalled attack, then someone commenting on how someone can cause that much damage with an uncalled low level spell.
    • Additionally, in order to transform their swords into stronger forms, Soul Reapers must call out a short phrase followed by the name of their swords. Activating one's Bankai is also called out, but simply in the form "Bankai: <name of Bankai>". Apparently Soul Reapers that can perform Bankai are skilled enough to perform Shikai without the activation phrase, but all characters that can say the phrases anyways.
      • Bankai activation is achieved merely by saying "Bankai", though they still tend to say the Bankai's name after releasing it.
      • In fact, those who have achieved Bankai don't actually need to call it out (like they can skip Shikai), they just do so to be pompous asses.
    • To activate her powers, Orihime Inoue must call the names of the "Shunshun Rikka" in her magical hairpins, adding a somewhat ridiculous Catch Phrase for what she wants them to do. Later in the series, she demonstrates an ability to call them forth quickly without speaking, hinting this may not be a requirement, but a tool for focusing her will.
      • Actually, the "Shunshun Rikka" themselves told her that, with practice, she can invoke them without calling by names. So, seems she did her homework.
    • "Beautiful Charlotte Coolhorn's final holy wonderful pretty super magnum sexy sexy glamorous... cero!" "That's just a regular cero!"
      • Actually, Charlotte lampshades Bleach's explanation of this trope when he used "Beautiful Charlotte Coolhorn's Lovely Cutie Fanatic Aquatic Dynamic Domestic Thunder Punch". He tripped up on "domestic" and so he claimed the attacks power was cut in half. Watch demonstrations here here and here
    • Zangetsu tells Ichigo that his Getsuga Tenshō actually becomes more powerful once he knows its name.
    • Subverted partially by Yumichika, who calls his zanpakuto with a fake name in order to annoy it enough to not transform into it's true form, which would cause his fellow members of Squad 11 to look down on him, because it is a kido-type zanpaku-tou.
    • "Howl! Zabimaru!" can be heard at least six times per minute when Renji is fighting.
      • Though only because Renji seems to like saying it rather than because it's necessary.
    • "MASHIRO KIIIIIIIICK!! KIIICK!! KICK! KICK!"
    • Seeing as they have the two longest phrases to activate their shikai, it's probably a good thing Kyoraku and Ukitake know how to skip it, using just the zanpakuto names instead. Fridge Logic in how they managed before they figured out how to skip the incantations. When Starrk goes through a full transformation sequence complete with his own, snappier phrase, the captains do not.
    • In a possible subversion of the usual Hot Bloodedness that normally goes with Calling Your Attacks, the lazy Coyote Starrk gives a perfectly deadpan "Cero Metralleta" when he uses his insanely huge Beam Spam attack.
    • To use their resurreccion, Arrancars say a specific word, followed by the name of their zanpakuto.
  • Spoofed in the Gunnm manga. While in the middle of an emotional conversation, Gally (or Alita, depending on translation) is attacked by a guy on a motorcycle. She throws him, bike and all, off of a balcony, without a pause in the conversation. When asked what the name of that throw was, she responds, "Um... the Two-Wheeled Biker Throw."
    • Played straight in both series though. Most special attacks have names, even thought other characters call their names by seeing them, or the character using them announces them in their head.
      • Which creates another spoof in Last Order when Gally's replica Sechs, uses a special attack based on his liquid based body, by quickly expanding the body to eight times it's size and then compressing it again, releasing the energy of the attack into the enemy. The commentator quickly calls it the "super diet punch" much to Sechs annoyance.
  • Lampshaded in Asagiri no Miko, where Seiko constantly mocks the nonsensical names of the other characters' signature moves. She also refuses to name her own move, but the other characters do it for her.
  • Similarly, in El-Hazard: The Magnificent World, priestess Afura Mann performs an impressive air-based attack which fellow priestess Shayla-Shayla calls the "Big Sucker Gas Slash". This prompts Afura to complain, "It's my attack! I want to name it!" Later in the OVA she does name it, calling it the "Badger Slash".
  • Rurouni Kenshin's Himura Kenshin generally will call out "Hiten Mitsurugi", the name of his swordfighting school, and then the name of the technique he's using, most commonly "Ryu Tsui Sen".
    • In the anime Kenshin would say "Hiten Mitsurugi-style" before attacking, only actually saying the name of the attack as it landed, or after it had done its work. Naturally, since Hiten Mitsurugi has many, many different attacks, this does little to help his opponent. Most of Kenshin's early fights ended with one application of Ryu Tsui Sen, a simple downward jumping cut.
    • Aoshi Shinomori describes his Kaiten Kenbuu technique while he's using it, only announcing the name after the attack.
    • In the fight against Enishi, he demonstrates how tough of an opponent his is by matching Kenshin move for move in his fastest attack on one occasion, and punching Kenshin in the face before he can finish getting even the Hiten Mitsuryugi name out on another.
    • Once (of many times) when Misao got angry with Kenshin, she yelled "Monster Bird Kick of Rage!" as she booted him (with the Unsound Effect "Booot").
  • Many of the spells from Slayers require a Magical Incantation that ends with the name of the spell being shouted out.
    • Spoofed by Love Freak Prince Phil, who practices what he calls "Pacifist Martial Arts" and Zelgadis dubbed "oxymoronic attacks" -- "Pacifist Crush", "Goodwill-Towards-Mankind Smash", "Joyous Reunion Bearhug", etc. Phil and Amelia are White Magic users, so this works well against Monsters and demons.
    • Subverted when Lina begins the lengthy incantation for her famous Dragon Slave spell, blurts out "etc. etc. etc." in the middle and then rapidly casts it with no apparent difference. Other times in the series, it's shown that a spell can be cast with just calling out the name, but is usually less powerful.
    • In interviews with the creator, how this ties into the rules of magic in the world were even more blatantly spoofed, with the creator mentioning that Gourry Gabriev has nearly the same magic capacity as Lina, but would never make a good sorcerer because he's so stupid as to be incapable of memorizing the incantations necessary to utilize it.
    • Although the anime loves to have fun with Calling Your Attacks and incantations in its filler and comedy episodes, in the more serious story arcs the exact phrasing of the incantations has a big effect on the effectiveness of the spell: after learning the true nature of the Lord of Nightmares, Lina subtly changes the incantation of the Ragna Blade and makes it much more powerful (and more difficult to use). In the novels she does the same to create a perfect version of the Giga Slave (in the anime the incantation for the perfect Giga Slave is unchanged in the English subtitles and dub).
    • More explanation on the rules of magic in the Slayers universe: mastery of magic in the Slayers setting is accomplished by skill with "Chaos Words", the incantations. The more powerful a sorcerer is, the less words they need; simply invoking the name is all the good wizards actually need to cast a spell. And if they use more Chaos Words then they actually need, the power of the spell is amplified further. This also means that only the very best wizards in the world can actually cast a spell without even speaking its name.
      • Which is why a guild wizard (Karuas) in Next was impressed when Lina used Levitation instantly. And once she scared off bad guys by casting what looked and sounded like a fireball spell, but is revealed to be a simple light spell after they've run away—which requires casting Lighting itself silently.
    • Not just for spells. "LIGHT COME FORTH!" is shouted by Weapon of Light users and makes the weapon more effective
  • Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann has both normal and subversive calls. The most impressive attacks are called normally ("Giga Drill BREAKER!!!!"), but characters do occasionally call normal fighting moves with ridiculous names, e.g. "Who the Hell Do You Think I Am Kick!".
  • Fist of the North Star does this often, prominently displaying the kanji of the technique's name at the bottom of the screen as it is said. However, the attack names are typically shown after the attack has been completed (there are exceptions, though), and in some cases the names are spoken by a narrator rather than the character. Sometimes the attack is even described in detail by the narrator in freeze-frame, like a Combat Commentator.
  • Attack names must be read out of a spellbook in Konjiki no Gash Bell, although when an attack is read for the first time, an unnecessary "The first/second/third spell" is frequently added.
    • A bit of a subversion, since the person calling the attack isn't the attacker, but the attacker's partner.
    • It was also played with in one episode where the enemy's plan was to have the partner be far enough away that their oppoents couldn't hear the spells be cast.
  • Most of the main characters in Inuyasha call their attacks. Kagome doesn't actually name her sacred arrow attack, though she frequently utters the Catch Phrase "Hit the mark!" when firing.
  • Parodied constantly in Bobobo-Bo Bo-bobo where every single attack is given a name, often ridiculous.
    • Furthermore, in the original Japanese version, "ougi" is almost always attached to the attack name in question. Most of the time it's "X Shinken Ougi", where "X" is the specific name of the "fighting style", but there have been times where it was just "ougi" without the "Shinken". In all cases in the dub, it's rendered as "Super Fist of the X".
  • The original Gundam series almost always averts it, but Amuro and Kamille manage to do this with Fin Funnel and Beam Confuse respectively.
  • G Gundam. Domon's "Shining Finger" (and, later, the "Erupting Burning God Finger") is not only accompanied by its name, but also always, without fail, is preceded by a chant, which has gained Internet popularity. Other fighters call their attack names, but most do not take nearly as long to recite.
    • Made even more crazy a few times in the finals. Domon would recite the first part of his chant, his opponent and/or partner recites the second part followed by Domon using the God Finger.
    • When Domon does the "Shining Finger Sword" attack in Super Mode or Hyper Mode, the chant doubles in length. That version, and a video of it, are at the top of this page.
  • Mobile Suit Gundam 00 usually avoids this, but Michael Trinity couldn't resist shouting "Fangs, fly!" whenever launching them, and everyone shouts "Trans-Am!" when that system is activated. Tieria usually announced when he was firing his "Burst Mode" bazooka, but this could simply be a warning to his allies, as said Burst Mode is extremely powerful, and not something you'd want to get hit with, Gundam or no.
  • Cardcaptor Sakura does this; however, it is necessary for her to call the name of the card in order to summon its powers. Indeed, there are times when she can barely get the word out in time to perform the necessary action.
  • The Prince of Tennis is filled with these occurrences. More recently, one character has named his move "Super Ultra Great Delicious All-Out Mountain Storm". Yes, the adjective "delicious" used for a tennis move. Some say this is a sign that the author has lost it.
    • When you consider that the match where the aforementioned "attack" was used was a 40 minute, 1 point match, where the 2 players ended up hitting the halves of split tennis balls at each other, then yeah, it's fair to say the author has a few screws loose.
  • The anime Ragnarok has the magic spells called out as well.
  • The Flash anime Xin subverts this: the only guy who calls his attacks is the weakest one there.
  • Mori no Ando: "Do you not know the saying: 'One should not fight- STRIKE MR ANDO STRIKE!'"
  • Tokyo Mew Mew not only calls their attack, but their weapons. "Strawberbell! Reborn... Strawberry Check!" Strangely, though, they only seem to actually call out the weapons just before they attack, not every time they summon them. Also, in at least one episode four Mew Mews were shown using their attacks without incantations. Pai, one of the aliens, has a variety of named attacks—unlike the Mew Mews', these are "called" in Japanese, not in English. In the manga, even the Blue Knight got one of these.
  • Pretty much all duelists in Yu-Gi-Oh!! call the attacks of their duel monsters, as well as any magic or trap cards they play. This is even parodied/lampshaded at one point (at least in the English dub) by The Pharaoh himself in his duel with Dark Marik. His opponent is so busy calling out his monster's attack that he fails to notice that Yugi has played a magic card which negates the damage.
    • It was played for laughs in the Jounouchi vs. Marik duel - Jounouchi gets control over one of Marik's monsters. Since he doesn't know the monster, he doesn't know its attack's name, so he makes one up - Jounouchi Fire!. The reaction of his friends marks one of the rare instances in which Yami Yugi is drawn in a semi-chibified style (the 4Kids' dub omitted the joke, replacing it with some generic duel comments).
  • In Loveless, this trope is justified in that the words are the spells themselves.
  • Like so many other anime tropes, spoofed in the first episode of Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu with the "Mikuru Beam". Haruhi, our resident unconscious Reality Warper, gets so into it that the supposedly fictional attack temporarily becomes a real ability.
    • Also, on the Remote Island two-part episode, Haruhi calls out her table tennis serve.
    • Koizumi's attacks in "Mysterique Sign" are Shout Outs to Full Metal Panic!.
    • There's actually a justified version of this, although it's hard to catch. As a living interface with the data entity that runs the galaxy, Yuki Nagato's power comes from incanting SQL commands really, really fast.
  • Kekkaishi is one of the worst offenders here. Making a kekkai and bringing it to Metsu without saying anything would probably be faster. But listening to the voice actors yelling "Ketsu! Ketsu! Ketsu! Ketsu!" like crazy for multiple targets can be fun.
  • Happens with most protagonists in D.Gray-man, except for the ones whose weapons are actually part of their bodies.
    • Though even many of them call out their attacks, for example protagonist Allen Walker's "Cross Grave" or Suman Dark's "Break Wind" and "Break Storm".
    • Of course, it's not always clear how much of the time they're saying things out loud and how often they're just thinking the trigger phrase, since it all reads the same in the manga.
  • While most attacks are called in Busou Renkin, Captain Bravo once memorably subverts the usual pattern by attacking first, and then calling it.
    • Tokiko lampshades Kazuki's tendency to do this during his fight against Washio, telling him that calling his attacks gives his opponent an ample opportunity to counter (something at which Washio excels). Kazuki then justifies it by saying it feels more powerful that way.
  • Averted (most of the time) in {Anime/{Mai-HiME}}. The girls never shout out their attacks when simply using their Elements, and even only Natsuki and Midori use vocal commands when preparing their CHILDs' most powerful attacks. The manga version, on the other hand, plays the trope completely straight.
  • Used after the Magic Music finishes in Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch. "Love Shower... Pitch! ♥"
  • In Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, Eagle Ken likes to punctuate his special boomerang attacks with "Birdrang!"
    • This also commonly happens whenever the team performs one of their "Science Ninja Techniques" such as the most prominent one "Kagatu Ninpo Hinotori" which temporarily converts their God Phoenix battle aircraft into a shrieking giant firebird.
  • Played (surprisingly) straight in the Pretty Sammy series. Oddly enough, everything that Sammy does is accompanied with "Pretty Coquettish Bomber" regardless of what effect it does. Pixy Misa also has Calling Mistakes/Mystics and Pixy Sexual/Lovely Fire (depending on what translation you go by), but significantly less variety in her abilities.
  • Every GaoGaiGar brave robo calls not only their attacks, but supporting tools, like the Dividing Driver, Dimension Pliers, and Eraser Head.
    • In fact, it could almost have a song where most of the lines are this trope...
    • Arguably subverted with the uber-Hotblood GGG Chief, Taiga, who has been seen calling his own attack when he pulls a club out of his golf bag to beat on some zombies. "TITANIUM HEAD DRIVER!"
  • In Rockman.EXE, Operators name all their chips, declaring "Slot IN!", as they... well, slot them in. It's possible that this is done to warn the Navis that their arm is about to change into a bladed yo-yo of death or some such. The Navis themselves call out not only their chips, but their default attacks.
  • Azumanga Daioh:

Tomo: Yomi's crazy flexible 'cause her body's made of almost nothing but fat!
Yomi: DOUBLE CHOP! (Yomi double-chops Tomo on the head) Quit being so damn rude!

  • Blade of the Immortal has what could be a parody of this; the only called attack is Rin's FLIGHT OF THE GOLDEN WASPS!... Which almost never works the way it's supposed to, and is called out as useless by other characters at least twice.
    • There was also a bandit in the very first chapter who announced a special moved called "HEAVEN ABOVE HELL BELOW" which was basicly him swinging his two swords horizontal, he used it to slice an innocent in half. Afterwards he was very quickly stylished cut appart (in shape of a manji) by the protagonist without any kind of attack name.
  • Parodied in Seikimatsu Darling. When Shikibu and Ogata play ping-pong, Shikibu finishes with an incredibly dramatic wind-up to his "Super Special Ultra High-Grade Certain Kill Shikibu Smash." It sends the ball across the table at an extremely slow speed, so, naturally, Ogata misses and loses the game.
  • Soul Eater has plenty of these. Things like Black Star and Tsubaki's Fey Blade mode can be activated wordlessly, but Black Star tends to name specific techniques much like his fellow meisters.
    • Calling attacks appears to serve no purpose (except for the obvious), and even the adult meisters do it.
    • Also, every team yells "Soul Resonance!" when activating it and almost everyone has to shout about it.
    • "MAKA CHOP!"
    • "Shinigami Chop!"
  • Characters in [Transformers:\] Super-God Masterforce call many of their special attacks, as well as transformations. Diver is particularly fond of these.
    • Transformers: Robots in Disguise had the same set of The Powers That Be as Digimon. Naturally, almost all attacks were announced, some as simple as naming the weapon, and some a bit fancier. (In fact, in one episode, Sky-Byte was unable to transform because he was carrying the MacGuffin in his mouth and couldn't say "Sky-Byte, terrorize!") The other Japan-original Transformers series do it to some degree, but RiD takes it the farthest.
    • In Transformers Cybertron, Thundercracker sometimes comes up with ridiculously overblown names for simple attacks, such as running up and punching someone, to the point that it actually gets commented on. What's funny is, they actually are pretty effective.
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
    • The series has a few examples, though the characters do eventually refrain from yelling every attack (unless you count "ORAORAORAORAORAORAAAAAAAAAA!" as an attack yell). Sometimes this can be fun due to the Theme Naming. Trish in Golden Wind has the Stand Spice Girls. Her attack? "WANNABEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
    • Subverted on one occasion as Jotaro prevented Dio from using The World by punching him in the mouth before he could say it.
  • The names of any of the powers used in The Law of Ueki have to be verbally called upon. Which makes you wonder how a character whose power requires him to hold his breath for it to work seems to do both with no problem.
  • The Area 88 TV series had calls like "Fox Two" and "Guns" being added to the English dub, possibly to fit audience expectations from American movies.
  • In UFO Princess Valkyrie, Sanada calls her attacks of: "NEKOMIMI PUNCH! and NEKOMIMI KICK!" in the style of one Captain Falcon.
  • Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle is usually serious about this, but spoofs it on one occasion: Kurogane uses his Hama Ryuuojin without shouting its name, and Fai calls him on it.

Fai: You could at least announce your technique's name, Kuro-sama!
Kurogane: Screw that.

  • In Death Note, Light prefers to smile silently while writing in the Death Note, whereas Mikami Teru loves to shout "Sakujo!" ("Eliminate!") after writing each name.
  • Also spoofed in Shinkon Gattai Godannar, which is itself an Affectionate Parody of GaoGaiGar (most obviously) and other Humongous Mecha series. It's rare to hear the same attack called out twice (beyond the trademark SOUL BREAKAAAAAH! and HEART BREAKAAAAAH!)... and a large part of the opening song in both seasons is dedicated to singing about the attacks.
  • Though by and large subverted in My-HiME, a few characters are known to do this. One seems to be an affection parody of Sailor Moon anyway. The other simply calls out what sort of ammunition her mecha-wolf ought to use in a given situation.
  • Whenever Hughes Gouli of Overman King Gainer uses Ninpou he shouts out the attack, its spoofed when Gouli does this while hotwiring a train transporter and calls it "BLAZING CAR", later spoofed when while fighting a Brainwashed and Crazy Gouli, Adette uses "Female teacher Ninpou Shedding Sking", after she escapes from Gouli using her Winter Coat as a decoy (she still had her Stripperiffic outfit on underneath) and defeats Gouli by kissing him.
  • Code Geass
    • Despite being a mostly serious mecha series, once in a blue moon, someone may call an attack. Episode 10 of R2 was notable for having two such occurrences in one episode; Tohdoh's "Shadow Longsword!" and Kallen's "Radiation Wave!"
    • "Storm of Loyalty"!
    • And, of course, "Lelouch vi Britania commands you..." He dropes the drama when time presses, but still does it often enough for CC to call him on it.
  • Mercilessly spoofed in Abenobashi Mahou Shoutengai. At one point the protagonistic duo get to pilot a giant robot, which they control... by shouting random stuff. "Wossname juuuuuump!"
  • GEAR Fighter Dendoh's attacks are called so hard the name is usually visibly flashed across the screen as they're being performed.
  • Subverted in Battle Programmer Shirase, when Shirase used his Double Compile technique for the first time in the series: the background turns into a yellow blur, the camera pans around him, he called "HISSATSU!! Double compile!!"... and sat back again, listless as usual, stating "that's really unnecessary"... before overloading a top-of-the-line supercomputer, causing it to blow up, with a cellphone.
  • In Fushigi Yuugi, Tasuki's fan requires an incantation for it to shoot fire, so he's one of the few characters who regularly gets to call his attack.
  • In Hunter X Hunter, Gon is very adamant about calling the names of his attacks, because otherwise it wouldn't look like a secret attack.
  • Spoofed in Dragon Half. When the King gets angry, he pulls a nearby rope and yells, Crushing Press!, dropping a huge weight on his target (usually his incompetent advisor) labeled "Ye King's Wrath".
  • Lampshaded in Angel Densetsu. Sanzo makes up progressively idiotic names for his attacks, while Ikuno comments how he's talking out of his ass.
  • NEEDLESS is made of this and wacky characters who use it gratuitously. Some of the more hilarious cases are:
    • DOPPELGANGER!!!DOPPERUGENGA!!! (written backwards for whatever reason) Furthermore, the one with this power is one of the female main characters, so expect to hear it in any episode. Yes, you have a shapeshifter as a good guy.
    • It's even more Egregious with the main hero: his power is memorizing the ability of other Fragment users, and he also copy the Calling Your Attacks part.
    • Subverted with Kuchinashi: she never say anything, but the screen is filled with stylized attack declaration anyway whenever she use her power.
    • BTW, this anime has nothing to do with Loveless mentioned above.
  • Hayate the Combat Butler calls out his special attack. The other combat butlers do this as well
  • Mostly played for laughs in The Violinist of Hamelin ("Tchaikovsky SUPLEX!"), though the anime prefers to play it straight. Fansubs give us a particularly Narmful example: one fansub translated one of Trom Bone's signature moves, "Scissor Slash", as... "Jesus Slash". Hmm...
  • Generally averted in Eureka Seven, though Anemone does call out her "Vascud Crisis" attack. Played for laughs in the soccer episode, where Moondoggie calls out over-the-top "attack" names when taking a shot.
    • Kind of justified with the Up to Eleven version of that move, "Vascud Swell", as she needs the aid of 6 "amplifier" mechs and has to let them know before she uses it, so they can set up.
  • And of course, being a Japanese action show, Zettai Muteki Raijin-Oh does this as well.
  • In Kinnikuman and its sequel Kinnikuman Nisei, every wrestler (even Meat) calls their attacks.
  • Princess Tutu does this once in the first episode; she summons a field of flowers to break Mytho's fall from a window while saying "Waltz of the Flowers" (at the same time that the actual Waltz of the Flowers is playing in the background). In every other instance, though, her vocalizations in combat (as far as ballet can be called combat) is more along the lines of Talking The Monster Through Its Problems.
  • Hentai Kamen flips this trope on its ear. Three words: "Inferno Bullet Train".
  • Harukanaru Toki no Naka de manga and anime adaptations inherited some of the attack spells used in the game, especially the ones for Combination Attacks. Oddly, at least in the Hachiyou Shou TV series there are instances of the Hachiyou using their newly-awakened Elemental Powers without these, yet later they are shown "unlocking" the same skills again, this time with the proper incantations.
  • Eyeshield 21. Yeah, in American football. This also greatly exaggerates Talking Is a Free Action. We've got Devil Bat Ghost, Devil Bat Dive, Devil Laser Bullet, Devil Backfire, Devil Stungun, Devil Bat Hurricane, Devil 4th Dimension, Delinquent Deathblow, Gentle Prince Spin... Spear Tackle, Trident Tackle, Shuttle Pass, Zero Gravity Run, the Swim, Rodeo Drive, Roping Rodeo Drive, Quickdraw Pass, Delta Dynamite... The list goes on.
    • And this also applies to game plays. Criss Cross, Dragon Fly, Devil Wishbone... Or techniques in general, like the Rip.
  • The Legend of Koizumi has its mahjong-playing politicians calling their own politically themed mahjong moves/final attacks—Japan's Junichiro Koizumi uses "RISING SUN!", Russia's Vladimir Putin uses "SIBERIAN EXPRESS", and so on.
  • The Lucifer and Biscuit Hammer's Knights consider it a very important part of fighting.
  • Grenadier: Rushuna is a gunfighter, but she still manages a couple of these when wielding pieces of her revolver. "Zero distance range-gun skill!"
  • Spoofed at one point in Beelzebub, where the main character calls a punch and a kick by impressive names... despite them being an ordinary punch and kick. His Non-Action Guy sidekick even dutifully starts making nonsense up to Combat Commentator about it.
  • "SCREW KICK!"
  • "GAHOU!"
  • The Future GPX Cyber Formula series has the drivers using their Nitro Boosts by calling out their car's commands like Hayato's "BOOST ON!" and "SPIRAL!", Shinjyo's "PEACOCK/PHOENIX/ICARUS WING!" and Randoll's "MESSER WING"!
  • Seen in the various Di Gi Charat series, mostly with Dejiko's "Me-kara Biimu" or in English, "Eye Beam!"
  • Done In Katekyo Hitman Reborn by Gokudera and Yamamoto
  • Most characters in Fairy Tail do this, but it's justified as each call qualifies as a Magical Incantation
  • Yaiba does this with almost all his attacks. It's rarely done by the bad guys though.
  • Every special move in Inazuma Eleven, complete with subtitile as a shout out to the original game it's made from, with a few exceptions when the moves are being debutted for the first time. In such case, Magane will name them.
  • Madoka Magica: Mami has her "Tiro... Finale!" This is the only called attack in the series. Though, the girls of the Kazumi Magica Spin-Off Manga all have their own called attacks.
    • The Expanded Universe has some of the other girls mock Mami for her use of this trope.
  • Parodied in the Lucky Star OVA during the volleyball game when Konata calls out "Super Ultra Miracle Eccentric Special Serve!".
  • In Kore wa Zombie Desu ka?, Haruna and Ayumu shout "Mystletainn Kick!" when using her signature attack (which, incidentally, is not a kick).
    • Seraphim loves to shout "Tsubamegaeshi Secret Sword Technique!" whenever she uses it in various ways. In one episode, she develops a brand new technique and shows some respect to Ayumu by letting him name it if they survive. She then proceeds to use it while shouting "Untitled Secret Sword Technique!"
  • Tekkaman will deactivate that giant robot with his SPACE LANCE!
  • Parodied in Deadman Wonderland. Ganta and Shiro watch a superhero show as kids, where hero Aceman pulls off a move:

Aceman: "Time to finish you off..! Super Ultra Delicious Dynamite Kraken Gaki Special Atomic Bomber Spiral Core Poisoned Drill Gravity Air Spin Fire Flare Vibrating Spectacular Final Yogurt Electronic Synchro Drive Jumping Beam Happy Zero Heat Ice Crusher Terry Itou Stone Mountain Surging Dark Candle Freeze Buster Light Sun Ocean Remarkable Clear Clip Cutter Jab Gazelle Monkey Boar Coelacanth Stardust Poison Papiko Sunder Storm Enlightened Over-Named But Really Nothing But An Extremely Normal PUUUUNCH!!!"

  • Averted in Gamaran despite being a shonen about fighting. The characters usually names the attacks outside of the battle or to their partners in case of a combinated attack. However, when someone performs a special attack the name is "thought".
  • Both played straight and parodied in Historys Strongest Disciple Kenichi: almost each martial artist calls his attacks, even Akisame and sometimes Shigure. Most of the time the names are conventional and mutuated from the original martial arts, but then, when it comes to their "finishing moves" you'll discover the sheer brutality of Akisame's "FORCED INTO AGONIZING POSITION DESTRUCTION HELL" or Apachai's "Might-be-slightly-better-off-if-dead-punch".
    • Obviously master of cowardly escape and deceit Haruo Nijima also calls his "attacks": "Nijima escape", "Nijima shock baton", "Nijima Human Shield"... you get the picture...
  • Parodied in Monster Collection, when the rogue martial artist mercenary specialized in covert operation Crow, seeing how easily the High Lizardmen finest squad manages to drive back an army of Giant Ants exclaims: "They're really strong! They call their attacks out loud! You could die if you get embarassed!".
  • Played straight in Danball Senki with double servings for each Finishing Move. The player calls out "Hissatsu function" and then the control device calls the name of the attack.
  • Magical Girls Oyashiro Rika & Trap Satoko in Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kira: "07th... Explosion!"
  • Accel World has Cyan Pile's SPLASH STINGER, as well as a few others.
  • The cricket tournament in Black Butler: "CRIMSON ROSE TORNADO!!" "RUSHING VIOLET VAPOUR, PURPLE BURNOUT!!" Though, in the first example the character apparently just thinks the words. The sub-arc in question is actually a Deconstruction of calling your attacks and the typical Shounen Tournament Arc plot. Later on we see people using to a great effect moves that don't have any special names, and it's made very clear that it's a bad idea to let the opposition predict your attack. (And by the way, no one in the manga has ever called their attacks in the actual fight scenes, probably because they have a modicum of common sense.)

COMIC BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOKS!!

  • In an issue of Marvel Comics' She-Hulk, the Boomerang shouts out the names of his trick boomerangs as he throws them. Shulkie asks "Are those voice-activated or something? Or is this just some kinda Japanese anime riff?"
  • Judge Dredd often calls out the names of his trick bullets whenever he fires his Lawgiver. This actually led many readers to erroneously assume that the gun was voice-activated (which in the movie it was).
  • In X-Men either Colossus or Wolverine will call out for the Fastball Special before it's performed. Justified in that neither Colossus nor Wolverine are telepathic; they have to signal to each other when to do the attack or you just have Colossus flinging Wolverine around without his consent or Wolverine jumping into Colossus's arms for no reason.
  • Johnny Alpha from Strontium Dog does much the same thing. "Number Four Cartridge!"
  • In another early 2000 AD title, Flesh, the characters would sometimes narrate their own fight scenes. "I'll use my whip to cut this giant spider in half." "I'll kill this spider with my hook... Yes, got it, right in its rotten heart!" * Cringes*
  • In one of the earlyish Deadpool issues, Deadpool is trying to get Wolverine to fight him (don't ask), and Kitty Pryde sasses him by saying Wolverine doesn't have time to play Deadpool's "little game". In reply, Deadpool asks, "Speaking of games, you ever play Street Fighter?" And then he Shoryukens her. (And then it is fighty time.) [dead link]
  • In her current[when?] solo miniseries, Vixen shouts out the name of the animal that she is using the powers of.
  • In one Invincible story, it's revealed that to summon a new stone shell for his body, the recurring villain not really turned good guy Titan yells "Rock On!" This inspires our hero to try saying "Invincible PUNCH!" the first time he hits a guy in their team-up battle. Titan calls him on it, he explains, and it never happens again... except once in The Pact when he's decking an old man who was admitting to owing him a debt of gratitude. (No, he's not being a Jerkass, it was the last person he ever wanted to help.) The Pact guys don't exactly like it (the name, not the punch) either.
  • Spider-Man occasionally does this, as do his villains. In one Egregious example, the villain turns around suddenly and shines a blinding beam of light in Spiderman's face. What does he shout as he does this?

Cat-Burglar: Hah! You didn't expect me to turn so suddenly and shine a blinding beam in your eyes!

"Mooshu fist! Kung pow attack! Twice cook palm! Happy famiry head bonk! General Tsao rooster punch! House special kick in nards!"

  • Also in the Marvel Mangaverse, the Iron Man mecha crew called out the lasers they had.
  • Lampshaded in a scene of Marvel's War of Kings event.

Smasher: Accessing hyper-strength upload from my exospecs.
(Drax punches Smasher in the face)
Drax: Accessing fist.

  • Alan Grant seems to like this trope. See Batman in the one-shot graphic novel The Scottish connection.
  • Doctor Strange does this a lot, although it could just be part of the spell casting process. If he is unable to use his voice, he is unable to use most if not all of his magic.


Fan... WOOOOOORKS!!

  • Justified in Dreaming of Sunshine. Because a major part of chakra is mental energy, calling attacks helps with focus and control. Lampshaded by Shikako.
  • In Naruto the Abridged Series, they parody this by having all the characters call their attacks with such entertaining names such as "Old Man Monologue Attack" and "Pudding Dragon". Then it's subverted with the "Heart Exploder Death Seal", with actually steals people's souls.
    • "DRAMATIC HOKAGE FIGHT JUTSU!!!" "How often could that possibly come up, that you would need to name a technique for it?"
  • In the Fanfic Street Fighter vs. Mortal Kombat (links to two separate MSTs by one group; the original is presumed to be lost), the fight scenes have the characters Calling Their Attacks a lot. Every time this happens (and we do mean every time), the attack name gets its own paragraph and is rendered in all-caps. It reaches the height of unintentional hilarity when one of the 3 Ninjas (it's that kind of fic) attacks with a "SHIN KICK."
  • Fauna of DC Nation will sometimes call out the animal form (or forms) she's transforming into. It's not essential, but it is a focusing trick, as her abilities come with some unpleasant side-effects.
  • Kyon: Big Damn Hero has Haruhi screaming "Master Spa~ark" when doing certain attack and Kuyou Suou when using her peculiar but effective defense against assimilation: "Activating 'chibi-mode'!"


FIIIIIILM!!

  • In Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Flint becomes overly excited during his first snowball fight and begins pegging anyone in sight with snowballs while screaming "SNOWBALL!" just before letting loose.
  • Played with in the movie Once Upon a Time in China and America. The hero's assistant gets in a fistfight with a non-Chinese speaking cowboy, and (atypically) doesn't call his moves, but simply howls abuse at him. Later, when the cowboy switches sides and picks up a few moves, he "calls off" the moves by shouting what he heard before. ("Who the hell do you think you are?!")
    • There's also one scene where, as a part of his strategy, Wong Fei Hung calls out the name of a move and then does a completely different, which causes his opponent to complain. When the opponent attacks again, Fei Hung calls out the same move and actually does it this time, nailing the opponent. When the opponent complains again, Fei Hung mocks him, basically saying "Yeesh, you complain whatever I do! You sure are hard to please!"
  • In the Austin Powers series, Austin always says "Judo chop!" whenever he chops a Mook on the head. Despite the fact that Judo is a martial art based on throwing people to the ground, and doesn't have chops. Other characters do this as well, such as Felicity Shagwell to Fat Bastard right before she kicks him the groin.
    • This may be a spoof of the James Bond novel Goldfinger, where the villain describes Karate as "a branch of judo".
    • It could be from a The Flintstones James Bond parody episode where Fred and Barney are hauling ass through a villain's secret base and plowing through the biggest Mooks with judo chops while yelling "A Judo Chop Chop!"
    • In fact authentic Judo does teach the "judo chop" (called tegatana ate, 'hand-blade strike') but it is not allowed in competition judo. It is only allowed in 'kata' (drills or exercises). Its use in Austin Powers is a spoof of the fact that the "judo chop" was a now-narmish staple of 60s spy shows.
  • The western comedy The Villain, features a scene where protagonist "Cactus Jack" Slade is in a Western saloon gratuitously punching people in various ways, and naming the attacks: "Uppercut. Right cross." Finally, he gets a taste of his own medicine and then some: "And that's a two-by-four."
  • Played straight in Legend of the Drunken Master where Wong Fei Hong consistantly calls his attacks.
  • Despicable Me: "Freeze Ray! FREEZE RAY! FREEZE RAY!"
  • In the first Spider-Man movie, when Peter is trying to figure out how he shot web, he tries out various hand gestures and phrases, including "Up, up and away, web!" and "Shazam!"


LITERATUUUUUURE!!

  • Harry Potter: All spells must be called until the pupils learn to cast them non-verbally to increase their sneak factors.
  • In The Lord of the Rings, there are the Words of Command, which are extremely draining. While most spells observed in the text require no verbal activation, spoken spells are also alluded to by Gandalf in various places.
  • Dresden Files has wizards use this for focusing purposes. Its indicated that it must use a language the caster is not fluent in, otherwise the difference in thoughts between when it is used for spellcasting and when it is used for conversation would disrupt the focus. Harry Dresden uses Latin, tough other wizards have been seen using more obscure or mythical languages instead.
    • Dog Latin, actually. Harry's actual Latin is pretty shabby, but it's still the language the White Council uses at meetings. Can't have some idiot blowing up the Merlin by accident. Elaine uses Dog Egyptian, and other wizards use Dog Sumerian. I imagine esperanto might be a good candidate for casting in a real language.
  • In Eragon, spells must be cast by saying their name. These casts are even context-sensitive: saying "Brisingr" while preparing a campfire will ignite it, whereas screaming "Brisingr!" while firing an arrow will make you fire an explosive arrow. This is a result of the local rules of magic.
    • Originally, it was entirely based on what you willed to happen. When someone gets distracted, this could be very bad. After a particularly horrible accident, an entire race used all their life force to make it so you could just say what you were going to do (in a language that is now only used by elves) and that's what would happen. It still wasn't foolproof. Eragon gave a baby a blessing that was supposed to shield her from misfortune. His grammar wasn't very good, so he accidentally made her a shield from misfortune, but it's easier to learn good grammar than to never get distracted.
      • It wasn't the magic system's fault that Eragon didn't know the grammar rules of the language.
  • Captains of especially large vehicles in the Warhammer 40,000 novels often shout orders a good deal louder than they might really need to. But then, if you had the chance to yell "Nova cannon! ACTIVATE!" would you pass it up?
  • And God said "Let there be light." Not actually an attack, but close enough to the spirit of the trope. The Word of God is His power. The way God's power works is He says something and then it's true.
  • In the Belgarion Saga, they use The Will and The Word to perform Magic. This trope is partially subverted by the fact that it doesn't really matter what word is used. Example:

Belgarath: Push?
Garion: You said to say push.
Belgarath: I said to push. I didn't say to say push.
Garion: It [the rock] went over. What difference does it make what word I used?
Belgarath: It's a question of style. Push sounds so?so babyish. After all, Garion, we do have a certain dignity to maintain. If we go around saying "push" or "flop" or things like that, no one's ever going to take us seriously.

    • In the second series, Belgarion restores a shattered door with "door". Belgarath is not particularily impressed then, either.
  • In a non-verbal variant, a martial arts master in Piers Anthony's Incarnations series once battled an entire dojo, one opponent at a time, by using various judo moves in the same order as these techniques are traditionally taught. This challenger just happened to be the Incarnation of War, so he handily wiped the floor with his opponents, even though they'd worked out the pattern after the third or fourth combat.
  • Plyed with in the Star Trek Deep Space Nine Relaunch novel Demons of Air and Darkness, when the Jem'Hadar soldier Taran'atar battles a Hirogen. At one point, the Hirogen asks Taran'atar why he's not pressing his attack. Taran'atar does not answer, and finally the Hirogen says that if Taran'atar won't attack, he will - making the Jem'Hadar wonder why the heck he would announce his own attack rather than just doing it.
  • Many, though not all spells in Septimus Heap work like this, like when Marcia Overstrand in Magyk tells DomDaniel to disappear into the Marshes.


Live Action... TEE-VEEEEEE!!

  • Toku shows (Power Rangers, Super Sentai and Kamen Rider) love this kind of thing. Even if most of the time, the attack is pure Stock Footage.
    • In Power Rangers it's most common for the name of the weapon to be called, rather than the effect. "Delta Max Striker!" "Power Sword!" However, there were a few situations where they'd name the attack too—which made the use of more tricked-out weapons painful to watch. "Lunar Cue!" [Takes out weapon] "Break mode!" [Re-forms it] "Laser Pool!" [Creates phantom pool table, puts Power Crystals on it] "Lunar Break!" [Launches them] Can we say overkill? It's part of the show's Merchandise-Driven nature: gotta make sure everything gets its name announced so the kids know what to beg the 'rents to go buy.
      • Has been taken to the extreme in the seasons under Bruce Kalish where even the guns are voice activated. That's right. Whether you call them guns or blasters or anything else, these weapons with quite noticeable triggers (y'know, devices which are operated via the finger) require the user to shout: "LASERS!" in order to make them fire.
    • Samurai Sentai Shinkenger/Power Ranger Samurai has an odd variant - the characters write their attacks in Japanese kanji. Justified as that's the way magic works for them.
    • Parodied once in Gekisou Sentai Carranger; the Monster of the Week, SS Paman, tried to use his ultimate attack (which included shout outs to past Sentai robo finishers). Unfortunately for him, it was so long that the Carrangers just went ahead and killed him with the RV Robo.
    • Somewhat lampshaded by Ryotaro in Kamen Rider Den-O. Kintaros, the team's Gentle Giant, calls out the name of his attack ("Dynamic Chop") after using it, causing Ryotaro to remark on this. Later on in the show, the Imagin tell Ryotaro to come up with a name for Liner Form's Finishing Move...while he's in the middle of performing it. Confused and pressed for time, he shouts out "Densha Giri!" (Train Slash), and instantly his teammates bemoan his lack of sense.
      • Although Train Slash is definitely more creative than Momotaros' method of attack naming, "My Final Attack Part ___/___ Version."
      • Which is exactly what Ryotaro says when Momo bugs him about "Train Slash."
    • Gets a more deliberate lampshade in Kamen Rider Double, where Double's Memory Breaks don't require attack-calling (as seen with Skull and Accel), it's just a quirk of Shotaro's. When Double gains FangJoker Form, Shotaro has Phillip (who controls FangJoker) name its Memory Break on the spot before they execute it.
      • Actually, Double needs to name his attacks, because he's two people in one body. As Shotaro explains when they name the Fang Strizer, the two bodies need to be in sync to perform a Memory Break. What's the easiest way to alert your partner that you are going to perform a special synchronized attack?
    • Tomica Hero Rescue Fire turns it Up to Eleven by calling the attacks through a megaphone.
  • In the same vein of the above Spider-Man movie example, in season 2 of Heroes, when Peter is trying to figure out how to shoot lightning from his hands, he says things like "Lightning! Go, Lightning!"
  • Then there was Johnny B in the short lived Misfits of Science blasted stuff with his electric powers while singing "Johnny Be Good".
  • In The Office, when Michael is calling his mom to tell her about his fake engagement to Holly, Andy Bernard exclaimed "speaker phone" as he hit the aforementioned button so all the office could hear.
    • Or Dwight's "Spin move!"
  • In Justified Boyd Crowdar yells "fire in the hole" whenever he fires a RPG or throws a firebomb. It is a habit he picked up learning explosives handling while working in the coal mines. He does not actually want anyone to get hurt during those attacks and when he actually wants to kill someone he does it quickly and quietly.


MUSIIIIIIC!!

  • Dick Valentine of Electric Six will occasionally declare "Solo!" before the band plays, well, a solo.
  • Bullet for My Valentine does this in one of their songs (Waking the Demon), in said song, just before the guitar solo starts, the singer calls out SHRED!!!.
  • Ringo Shiina of Tokyo Jihen calls out "Gitaa!" before guitar solos in Ringo no Uta and Himitsu, the opening tracks of the band's first two albums.
  • Hibria's "Tiger Punch" has a chorus like this: "Tiii-geeer punch and lightspeed attack!"
  • In the Billy Joel song "A Room of Our Own", following the second chorus, Billy calls out "Bridge!" just before the bridge begins.


Pro... WRESTLIIIIIING!!

  • The Combat Commentator version is present in most promotions of Professional Wrestling, with the ringside commentators talking about the move, its history, and how utterly devastating it is. As well, most wrestlers, while not explicitly calling their signature moves, do have a particular pose or set-up they perform to signal it. The late Mr. Perfect actually did call his signature move, turning towards the camera and saying, "Now, you're going to see a Perfect-Plex," before executing the maneuver.
    • Perfect's call was parodied/subverted by jobber Reno Riggins, who would have a brief surge of offense, then pause to shout "Get ready for... a RenoPlex!". This would inevitably give his opponent more than enough time to recover and beat the tar out of him.
    • Wrestlers frequently "signal" the impending move with signature gestures (Ex: Shawn Michaels will "Tune Up The Band"—a long, drawn out, ring stomp—before attempting his "Sweet Chin Music" superkick.)
    • Bret Hart, eternally characterised as a master technician, used a variation of this with his Five Moves of Doom -- "calling" his Sharpshooter by using the same group of set up moves in sequence. It's now common enough to have become a trope of its own.
    • Sean "X-Pac Heat" Waltman's crotch chops before the Bronco Buster.
    • The Rock's People's Elbow... Nuff Said!
    • In the indies, it isn't uncommon for wrestlers to literally yell out the name of the move they're about to hit before executing it. (Or attempting to, as the case may be.) Christopher Daniels, for instance, sometimes shouts "Angel's Wings!" before going for that finisher, Chris Hero shouts "Death Blow!", and on one occasion Bryan Danielson screamed "AIR...PLANE...SPIN!" before doing this.


Roleplaying... GAAAAAAMES!!

  • In many live-action roleplaying games, it is necessary to call the damage done by an attack before it lands.
  • Similarly, it is sometimes necessary in LARP events to call out specific attacks. For instance, a backstab might do 5 damage, but the dagger would only do 1; in that case, the player might be required to say "Backstab - 5" instead of only the damage dealt to inform the victim he's not cheating. Calling out attacks is also used in LARPs that have magic; since there is no actual effect, and since the effects can be more elaborate then simple damage (a sleep spell, for instance), spell names and effects need to be called out.


SPOOOOOORTS!!

  • In kendo, naginata, and similar arts, one must call out the body part one intends to strike as the blow hits, or one does not receive points for the hit.
  • Then there's the story which claims Babe Ruth pointed to the center field bleachers in the fifth inning of Game Three of the 1932 World Series. On the next pitch, he hit a home run over the center field bleachers.


Tabletop... GAAAAAAMES!!

  • In Dungeons & Dragons it's used several times, unsurprisingly given that here's always a reminder.
    • 4th edition actually invites this, with all attacks having names like "White Raven Strike".
    • Even moreso withe the "hellish rebuke" warlock power, an attack that takes the character's angry shouting (with a seemingly expected performance by the player), turns it into fire and hurls it at an opponent.
    • Weird spell requires the caster to inform the victims that "their doom is now upon them" in a language they understand. Justified, since it's a phantasm.
    • Parodied in the Forgotten Realms novel Silvefall, though in such context it's likely to be a joke about RPGT/cardgames. At least, they call after respective attacks.

"Wild magic stone brings down antimagic shell," the Red Wizard said calmly, for all the world as if he were describing a move in a chess game. [...] "Laeral's Cutting Hand," she announced, her tones a mockery of his own.

    • Also, spells require different components (Verbal, somatic, material, experience or focus), and some, but not all require a verbal component.
  • In GURPS: Martial Arts there is an optional rule where calling out a name for your attacks gives a penalty to the opponent's defense. You can also call out the name of a defensive move in order to counter this.
    • Another optional rule, in GURPS Thaumatology, makes curses easier to cast and/or harder to resist if the caster announces them beforehand.
  • Saying "check" and "checkmate" in chess. Also, writing your attacks - it has been known for players, even some grandmasters, to write down their moves before making them on the board, although that practice has now been ruled banned.
  • There probably isn't a wargame where you can roll the attack before announcing which unit is attacking, its target, and the details of any options they may have when attacking.
  • The priests of Kor, the god of war and slaughter in The Dark Eye, have the power to harness all the damage their first eight strikes would do and use it all on the final ninth strike. While they are doing this, they will start counting from one to nine, so any enemy familiar with this cult will know what's coming. Doubles as a Death or Glory Attack.
  • In the comics in between chapters in any Exalted book, the characters sometimes shout out the name of the Charm or spell they are using. All Charms and spells also have names like "Flight of the Brilliant Raptor" and "Hungry Tiger Technique," practically begging for this treatment.


Card... GAAAAAAMES!!

  • In Magic: The Gathering The first step in casting a spell is to announce it which includes naming all its targets, costs and modes. Not announcing your spells properly is a rules violation since it is considered public information that you need to present to your opponent fully.

Cast Lightning Bolt on the Grizzly Bears


Video... GAAAAAAMES!!

  • Arc Rise Fantasia: A number of spells and excel acts just have the characters saying the names of their spells/attacks when initiating them, while other times they just make up their own names for attacks that already have their own names.
  • Gears of War: Boomers call out "BOOM!", and so on. They achieve a sort of Narm Charm with their calls.
  • Psychonauts features, in its Godzilla pastiche level "Lungfishopolis", a boss named Kochamara who is a master of this technique. His shouts include "Mighty RAM!, "Mighty ram GROUND VERSION!" "Hard to avoid AREA ATTACK!" and the notorious "Overly intricate COMBINATION!"
    • Don't forget "Deadly TRIANGLEBEAM!"
  • Brutal Legend: DECAPITATIOOOON!
  • In Super Mario 64 DS, Wario does this with a simple punch. "Punch! Punch! Yah!"
  • Star Ocean the Second Story. Practically all the heroes and the Ten Wise Men call their Killer Moves and Magic Spells while using them, you can even hear them in the Voice collection. This is a feature of the Star Ocean series in general.
    • "SPICULE!"
    • Like Tales below, such calling of attacks has been in Star Ocean since the humble beginnings on the Super Famicom.
    • Star Ocean: Second Evolution, which is an updated version of The Second Story for the PSP that uses a new translation and new voice tracks, uses this trope for about everything that isn't Claude's Helmetbreak attack (he just screams when he uses it).
  • Skies of Arcadia: Most of the techniques used by the heroes and some of the bosses use their name or a form of it in a phrase during the attack itself. They also call attacks made by their ships.

Vyse: MOON STONE CANNON, FIRE!

  • Notably, many Japanese 2D fighting games, such as Street Fighter and The King of Fighters feature characters that shout the names of their signature attacks, famous examples from both being the Hadouken and the Genocide Cutter, respectively.
    • The voice quality sometimes lead to amusing Mondegreens (Sonic Boom Alex Full! Tiger Uppercut Tiger Robocop!).
    • Naturally, this was done in the Marvel vs. Capcom series of fighting games, which features Western superheroes shouting out their attack names even when they never do so in the comics.
      • FOOT DIVE! HIGH KICK! HIDDEN MISSILES! PLASMA BEAM! MOLECULAR SHIELD!
      • Speaking of Marvel, even the X-Men Legends games and Marvel Ultimate Alliance, which are developed by Western companies and are not fighting games, had the characters call their Xtreme super moves' names. Even more ridiculous when you consider that none of the Marvel moves in MvC had names as silly as Deadpool's "Merc's Revenge" in the latter game. And yes, he shouts it in a serious manner. Well, as serious as Deadpool gets, anyway.
      • Sometimes the same attack would change names between Legends 1, Legends 2, and MUA, though some characters did get new ones.
    • In Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Figher and Marvel vs. Capcom the announcer will call your attacks. That is, if your Super Combo Finish connects. Abandoned in Marvel vs. Capcom 2, likely due to the sheer volume of audio clips required (usually 2-3 super combos per character, 56 playable characters in all).
      • Marvel Superheroes vs. Street Fighter, and you got the callout only if the super ended the fight (hey, old school!). The exception was Dan's Super Taunt, for obvious reasons. Marvel vs. Capcom only said "Hyper combo finish!", although you did get to see the name of the super on the screen.
        • Cyber Akuma didn't get his supers called. At least not in the PSX version. Instead we got "Hyper Combo Finish!"
    • Particularly jarring in the live-action So Bad It's Good movie (the first one), where most of the actors are Western, and the only character who calls their attacks is (wait for it) British fighter Cammy, who inexplicably shouts "Front Kick!" when she does one of her special moves, which is... er, a front kick.
      • "Thrust Kick" was the name of her "Cannon Spike" technique in the international versions of Super Street Fighter II until it was changed back in the Versus and Alpha series. The "Front Kick" is most likely a Mondegreen on the actresses part.
    • The King of Fighters Terry Bogard has his BUSTA WOLF!!!
  • The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim presents a variant of this: when performing a Dragon Shout, the name of the attack is the attack itself.
  • Mega Man X will say "Hadouken" when executing the secret hidden instant-kill technique.
    • Which is actually a sped up version of Ryu's "Hadoken!"
    • He'll also call the names of special weapons in X8 and Maverick Hunter X. I dunno why. He didn't in the previous 7 games.
      • Zero also does this in X8.
    • Likewise, when voice acting was added to the original series in Mega Man 8, every single Robot Master did this with their signature weapon, and a few did it for their other attacks as well.
  • In Mega Man Star Force 3, Geo calls out his Big Bang attacks: "Atomic Blazer!" "Elemental Cyclone!"
  • The sword techniques used by the Takamachi family in Triangle Heart 3 ～sweet songs forever～ also have the names appear in lettering for the audience.
  • In Atlantica Online, all player characters call their magic skills every time they use them, on the lines of

"[Enemy's name]!Take this![Magic's name]!".Even with healing spells.

  • In the Super Smash Bros. fighting game series, Captain Falcon—originally of the F-Zero racing titles—calls out his painfully slow (but extremely powerful) signature move, the "Falcon... PUNCH!!!" (He also calls a faster "Falcon Kick" attack.)
    • The punch was also adopted by the anime, where it is insanely powerful.
    • Also, in Brawl, when Snake fights Falcon and uses his codec, he and Otacon lampoon this by saying they've always wanted to do something...unlike what you're thinking, they do a laudably over-the-top "FALCON PUUUUUNCH!" "FALCON KIIIIICK!".
    • In the same series, Ness—originally of EarthBound—calls out his "PSI" moves: "PK Thunder," "PK Fire," & "PK Flash."
    • Kirby, after copying Falcon's or Ness's powers, also calls out the attack names, but in his insanely cuter, higher-pitched voice. "Fawcon Punch!"
      • Kirby also calls out his attacks in the Hoshi no Kirby anime (but removed from the dub).
      • In a strange example, if Kirby copies R.O.B. he'll yell out "BEEEEP!" when firing his laser eyes.
      • Likewise, when copying Pikachu's powers he calls out "Pikachu!" just like the Mon is so known for.
    • Brawl adds Lucas (which follows Ness) and Ike, who calls his signature move, Aether. Some other characters also call their Final Smashes.
  • Mischief Makers has THE Beastector, who call out the names of their respective vehicles, "Beast Change!" for them to transform, and Lunar also yells his vehicle's name when transitioning to the final part of his boss fight (and "You're mine!" for some of his melee attacks, making him the most vocal of the three). He also does the only sort-of calling the attack in the final boss fight, when THE Beastector is fighting in their combined vehicles. When the robot jumps into the background and performs the Mazinger-like chest beam, Lunar yells "Through fire, justice is served!".
  • You'd think a series as wonderfully OTT as Devil May Cry would exhibit this gratuitously. You'll be wrong. Averted in 1 and 2, where Dante speaks only guttural warcries as he uses his moves. Subverted in 3, where he gets them wrong. Quite wrong. Perhaps the most glaring example is the super-uppercut "Real Impact", where he ends up shouting "Rising Dragon", a differently executed uppercut for which he only spares said guttural warcry.
    • Similar to this trope, however, in the 4th installment, Dante will call out the names of his styles as he changes to them if he's standing still ("Trickster!" "Royal Guard!" "Gunslinger!" "Swordmaster!") with an accompanying pose. If you use the style swap mid-combo (and you probably will), he says a cut-down version and skips the pose so as not to interrupt himself, ie. "Sword!" When switching to Vergil's Dark slayer style, which he acquires late in the game, he calls out something other than the style's name. You still get a pose though.
  • Spoofed a few times in Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan: the ramen chef in the "Linda Linda" stage of OTO1 has "Ultimate Secret Techniques" for cleaning, cutting vegetables, and making noodles, while the barber in the "Julia ni Shoushin" stage of OTO2 calls out the hairstyles he's doing.
  • Every game in the Tales (series) uses this whenever a character uses a special move. In case of spellcasters, high-level spells often include a lengthy chant during the casting. And yes, that includes Tales of Phantasia on the SNES, courtesy of the Flexible Voice Driver.

Stahn: OUGI...GOUMA...KAIGIN-KENN!

    • To reduce redundancy, Tales of Vesperia introduced more than one shout for artes, and Raven completely averts this trope with most of his melee artes. Destiny Remake and Hearts likewise have characters say different things for every use of an arte beyond the first (usually a grunt or a simple battlecry), since their systems allowed freestyle comboing, including spamming, something most games in the series don't have.
      • I'LL BLOW YOU AWAY! DESTRUCT-DESTRUCT-DESTRUCT-DESTRUCT-DESTRUCT-DESTRUCT-DESTRUCTION FIELD!!! If that doesn't get your blood boiling, nothing will.
      • In Tales of Vesperia, Rita takes a long time scrying out Violent Pain whenever she casts it. She has a full speech ready each time. Put her in Overdrive though, and she'll just screw over the scrying incantation by saying "Blah blah blah," followed by calling out her attack. "Violent Pain!"
    • Hermana of Tales of Innocence actually yells "Puuuunch" and "Kiiiiiiick" for some of her moves.
  • The Touhou series is pretty unique among shmups in that most of the bosses' attack patterns are all different named attack spells, with the spell name displayed onscreen when it is cast. Various supplementary material for the series explicitly states that, whilst the use of named spells is not necessary to practise magic (or swordsmanship, or exorcism, etc), it was codified as a form of ritualized magical combat in the distant past.
    • According to some supplementary material, the main character herself modified the combat to the system used in the games sometime between the fifth and sixth games (that is, of course, assuming the first five games are even canon).
    • Utsuho Reiuji does it with bright yellow CAUTION! signs and a warning klaxon.
  • In Valkyrie Profile 2, all characters call out their Finishing Move at the end of their little speech while performing it. For mortals and einherjar, the speech ends with "Finishing Strike: (name of attack)". The gods finish with the shout "Divine Assault: (name of attack)".
  • Some of the characters in No More Heroes, including Travis, play this perfectly straight... but more noteworthy is Destroyman, a send up of Toku heroes who deconstructs or parodies this—his weakness is specifically that his overblown posturing and Egregious attack calling makes it easy to see his attacks coming, dodge, and counter.
    • Destroyman can't help it, even if he knows it's the flaw in his battle strategy. His weapon, the SFX Converter, is made so that it'll automatically do an attack by calling the attack. He needs to call out the attacks or he can't use any attack except his melee attack.
    • Travis seems to have stolen some of his attack names from the Show Within a Show anime he's fond of, given that its main characters are Blueberry, Cranberry and Strawberry...
    • Shinobu does this too with attacks like "Sonic Sword!", "Bloody Sundae!", and "Black Tuesday!".
  • Some of main characters and cameo characters in the Disgaea series call their attacks (Though sometimes only with the Japanese audio on). Notable examples include Zetta's "ZETTA BEEEAM!" and Kurtis' "ROKETTO PAUNCH!"
  • Ability names are displayed when used in Final Fantasy Tactics, but occasionally the character using them will call them out with a descriptive preface. "Destruction of nature, gather in flame...Fire!" Removed from the English version of the PSP remake.
  • Being an amalgamation of a great many Humongous Mecha anime, Super Robot Wars has more of this than even entire series of fighting anime. Although just about everyone does it, Original Generation character and Ascended Fanboy Ryusei has a particular joy for doing this, even when simply letting off a couple shots in a Real Robot, to the point where he initially gets some funny looks from the other characters. It seems to be infectious, as those same characters end up using this trope more and more as the games go on.
    • Also, Irm in Grungust. "CALAMITY SWORD - DARKNESS SLASH!"
    • A somewhat odd example exists in that there is technically an attack that everyone calls out, no matter their predilection to doing so normally. The infamous Gespenst Kick seems to cause pretty much anyone who uses it to suddenly become markedly Hot-Blooded and scream the name of the attack at the top of their lungs. Hilariously, the anime suggests that the reason everyone does this is that they actually have to shout it out in order to execute the Gespenst Kick properly.

SHOUT NOW!!

    • The more comedic characters occasionally get the attack names wrong, or just make something up because they don't remember.

Ryoko Subaru: GEKIGAN FLARE! Wait, what the hell am I saying?

  • Used somewhat inconsistently in the Dreamcast RPG Grandia II. Several characters do call out their moves, such as the main protagonist Ryudo doing so in a typically Dragonball Z-style. Others incorporate the move's name into a more natural sounding sentence, while Millenia just makes unrelated snarky comments.
    • The first Grandia did this to an extent as well, where each character would sometimes issue a bad pun or one-liner before casting a magic spell.
      • This trope is subverted and played straight in all Grandia games. Some spells and special attacks are just called by name, but with others, exactly what the castor says depends on his or her personality. For example, in Grandia III, these are what the following characters say when they use Heal or Healer on themselves:

Yuki: I'll be fine.
Alfina or Dhana: I call upon the healing power of the stars.
Miranda: This should feel refreshing!
Alonso: Time to juice up!
Ulf: What would I do without this?

  • The Persona series:
    • In Persona 3, the character will occasionally shout out the names of their personas when summoning them. Which makes sense for the main character, who can change personas at will, but why would the other shout them out? Occasionally the characters will say something other than their persona's name during a Critical Summon, but a few are annoying.

Yukari: I SWEAR ON MY LIFE!!!

    • This applies to Persona 4 as well. The only attack call that's 100% consistent is the obligatory shout of "PERSONA!", which is both noncommittal and quite effective. Also, the whole attack calling thing is kind of awkward if you have Satan or Lucifer equipped at the time...
  • In the Wing Commander franchise, fellow pilots often announce torpedo attacks. Judging by Real Life example below, that's a decent imitation of standard dogfighting protocol.
  • Every playable character in Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits does this. EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. A few preface the attack name with a little verse: "O Wind, Grandpa's sword the power of Justice! Windslasher!" "Feel my RAAAGE! Firestorm!" "O Icy Blizzard, rage of the Storm! Blizzard!"
  • In Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, when playing as Charlotte, she will call out the name of any spell if you super-charge it before releasing. Whenever you switch between Charlotte and Johnathan, the character shouts the name of the other character. Also, whenever you use a combination spell, both characters will simultaneously shout the name of the spell.
    • In Order of Ecclesia, sometimes Shanoa will call her magic attacks, usually with simple words like "Flame!" or "Lightning!" When playing as Albus, however, he calls the name of almost everything he does as loud as he possibly can.
  • Llednar Twem of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance pauses before his strike, but after charging energy, to say exactly what he is going to inflict upon the main character. The attack, Omega, is illegal to use in the area, and the Judgemaster takes the time when Llednar is reciting a descriptive poem to arrest him.
  • Phoenix Wright's "OBJECTION!". Anything that can set others to physically mutilating themselves, if not outright EXPLODING, constitutes as an attack.
  • The first two games of the Xenosaga series did this, but only for the tech attacks in Episode I and the double attacks in Episode II. In Episode III, however, the attack names are replaced with a nice little phrase before the attack. Ex: for KOS-MOS's D-TENERITAS attack, after she is fully awakened as Mary Magdelene, she says, "Relinquish your pain unto me."
  • Baten Kaitos: In the GC version, before every finishing move.
    • In Eternal Wings, Xelha and Mizuti, your magic-users, call every spell they use. Which gets very, VERY annoying when you get to the point where you can make them cast eight or nine spells in a row.
  • Sly Cooper has the Panda King doing this with his Flame-Fu.
  • In Space Channel 5, Ulala and her enemies say their cues. If they didn't, the game would be unbeatable.
  • .hack does this of course. It's simulating an MMORPG so it's justified.
  • All the playable characters do this in Eternal Sonata, although only after racking up twenty-four consecutive hits. Some(such as Beat or Polka) use simple phrases, others (Viola, Frederic) make slightly lengthier statements and some(Falsetto and March) almost hit full-on soliloquy territory. Compare these two:

Beat: This is it for you! Fire Blast!
Falsetto: By lightning and thunder will you be thrown. By wind will you be scattered! Heaven and earth! Howling Thunder!

  • It's a fighting game, so one would expect characters in BlazBlue to call their attacks. Many do so, and do it well ("Baden Baden Lily!" should sound silly, but it works [1]). Special mention goes to Hot-Blooded Highly Visible Large Ham Bang Shishigami, who often calls out more poetic names than his moves actually have and even goes so far as to announce "This is an ukemi!" That's right. He yells loudly to let his opponent know he's getting up after being knocked down.
    • Sometimes, the names Bang calls out for his attacks aren't even the right names. Ex. "Critical Super Crash!" for "Bang's Unstoppable Double Palm Thrust." He even has two slightly different names for an attack based on whether it is being used on the ground or in the air.
    • Against personal rivals, the voices change to something relevant to the character pair.
      • "Baden Baden Lily!" becomes "Kneel before me, Ragna." (Rachel vs. Ragna)
      • "Fenrir, don't fail me! Nemesis stabilizer!" becomes "You're no longer my superior Jin Kisaragi. You're under arrest!" (Noel vs. Jin) or "Ragna the Bloodedge... YOU'RE STUPID!!" (Noel vs. Ragna)
      • "Arctic Dagger!" becomes "Red Devil my ass!" (Jin vs. Tager) or "Out of my way, eyesore!" (Jin vs. Noel)
      • "Optic Barrel" becomes "Hands off the panda!" (Noel vs. Litchi) It Makes Sense in Context.
      • "Against certain opponents, Tager's "Genesic...Emerald...Tager...Buster!" becomes "Don't think so! Any last words? This is going to be...your end!"
      • Even Makoto has this. Particle Flare alternates between two lines normally, but there are five variants.

"Watch this, friend! This is my... BEST SHOT!!" (Noel)
"I'll show you... everything... that I've learned!" (Jin))
"Tsubaki!! Please wake up... with this one last blow!!" (guess)
"'Superior' my ass! You're lower than dirt! It's time for a mutiny!!" (Hazama)
"You're a colonel, and I don't give a crap! EAT IT, CREEPER!!" (Relius)

  • Inverted in Prototype, where Cpt. Cross's calling out of his need to reload, and hence inability to attack, shows to the player when to start counterattacking.
  • Legend of Legaia: The three playable characters always shout out their attack names, but in Japanese, as there isn't an English language track. A few of the attacks have multiple incantations, though, and a very select few are in accented-English, such as Tornado Flame. The sequel has English voice-over work, and the characters also announce all signature moves.
  • The characters in Legend of Dragoon call the names of Dragoon magic before hitting opponents with it. They also call the names of their regular Combo Attacks, albeit after having whacked the enemy with it.
  • Many of the characters in the Kingdom Hearts series will do this, especially boss characters, although series protagonist Sora seldom if ever calls out the actual name of the technique he's using ("Deepfreeze" for Blizzard, "Wind" for Aero, etc.).
    • For Sora and Donald it seems to be linked to using magic and thus could be a normal part of spellcasting.
    • Optional Superboss Sephiroth's calling of his attacks was notoriously difficult to understand, leading to his most powerful technique "Descend Heartless Angel" being almost universally misheard as "Sin Harvest."
  • In Mitsumete Knight, two of the enemy Eight Generals, Borankio the Unshakable and Salishuan the Spy, are guilty of this with their respective Special Attacks, the "Hasai Senpu" and the "Precise Kill". Bonus points for Borankio, as he shouts "Hissatsu !" before "Hasai Senpu !".
    • And then there's Priscilla who uses this trope in a comic way in of her Events, shouting "Flower Hurricane !!" when throwing flowers around her, and "Double Flower Hurricane !!" when the player joins her.
  • Disco Kid in Punch-Out!! for the Wii will shout "Here it comes!" before making swipes. It's almost easier to list the fighters who don't call their attacks when it comes to the Wii version.
  • In NamcoXCapcom Some characters call their attack names when attacking
  • Guilty Gear's biggest offender is Sol Badguy by far, but every character has one or two attacks they like to shout out in Gratuitous English, mostly their signature moves like Ky's "RAIDO ZA LAITONINGU!" or Potemkin's "HEAVENLY POTEMKIN BUSUTAAAH!"
  • Yo-Jin-Bo likes this trope. Every guy has at least one special attack, and most of their called names are Exactly What It Says on the Tin, perhaps with a dose of Department of Redundancy Department for good measure.
  • Saxton Hale lives and breathes this trope.
  • Playing Bujingai Swordmaster involves Gackt calling his magics as he cast them.
  • A short story on the Rift website describes historical warrior Won Odego yelling "Strike like iron!" and "Way of the Mountain!" when activating paragon abilities.
  • In World of Warcraft, bosses tend to do this - mainly the reason is to give the player some time to dodge a devastating attack.
    • For example: BOOOOOOOONNEEEEEE-STOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRMMMMM!
  • Fifi in Tiny Toon Adventures: Defenders of the Universe calls out her special attack whenever she uses it. "Le Odor of Love!"
  • Sonic the Hedgehog: "CHAOS CONTROL!"
  • RuneScape is mostly free of this trope, but certain Dungoneering bosses will call their attacks, warning players of what is coming. To'Kash the Bloodchiller is the first one players are likely to encounter, with three calls for his special attack: "Sleep now... In the bitter cold" a few seconds beforehand, "DEEP FREEZE!" as he encases the player(s) in ice and "I will shatter your soul!" when he smashes said ice. Experienced players use this against him and leave the room until after he's finished the attack. Har'Lakk the Riftsplitter will also call his portal attacks, with "A flame portal will flush you out!", "Taste miasma!" and "This will cut you down to size!", summoning an area of flame, poison or stat-reducing goop.
  • In Viewtiful Joe, the first time you fight Captain Blue, he shouts, "Captain Blue kick!" For some reason, he does not do this in the next battle.
    • Other characters get into it, too. Joe calls out his "Red Hot Kick!" move, while Alastor calls out almost all of his moves.
  • The Dissidia Final Fantasy series provides a dual example; when a character uses any attack, they call out something to do with the attack, or dare the opponent to dodge of withstand them (if not a simple Kiai), and, whenever a character uses a HP attack, a little text box appears onscreen with the name of the attack being used, with the art style being the same as boxes used in the game the character originated from. Cecil and Kain are particularly elaborate offenders, being medieval-style knights.

Cecil: [using Saint's Dive] Beneath the light... COMES JUDGEMENT!
Kain: [using Rising Drive] Engrave! DRAGON'S FANG!

  • In Vattroller X, most characters summon a creature when they use their Smart Bombs. Zoro however, having nothing to summon, just has a bunch of text appear over his head instead.
  • Parodied in Bloody Roar, wherein the Mad Scientist Busuzima has one attack in which he simply kicks his opponent while shouting "Kick!" Otherwise played straight by a few characters, with Busuzima himself having another combo wherein he punches his opponent four times, shouting each syllable of his name in time with them.
  • In Nancy Drew game, Danger by Design, you can pick up a book on the martial art "Ichi-do," where it details 9 attacks that each have their own battle cry. Knowing where your opponent is going to hit helps with defeating Minette.
  • From Umineko no Naku Koro ni, we get give a simpler, if very Badass example from George in the 4th episode.

George: Reverse Roundhouse. Jaw fractured... High Axe Kick. Collarbone Fractured.

Visual... NOVEEEEEELS!!

  • Fate Stay Night:
    • Required for certain Noble Phantasms to activate, particularly those that have one-shot effects, as you need to call their "true names". "Gae... BOLG!"
    • Happens to a lesser degree in the prequel Fate/Zero. Still, EX... CALIBUR!!!
    • Archer's Unlimited Blade Works spell.
  • Used suprisingly often (as it's a Visual Novel) in Brass Restoration. Most notably, "FOREHEAD CRUSHER!"
  • Maji De Watashi Ni Koi Shinasai has all members of the Kawakami Temple doing this, and Assistant Master Lu even spends time brainstorming names for his new special moves.


Web... ANIMATIOOOOOON!!

  • Saltman, a guest character in Banana-nana-Ninja!, fires his "SAAAALT LASER!" which is, strangely, a glob of salt.
  • For us that understand spanish here is one parody of this El escroto mortal del dragón (the Dragons lethal scrotum) .
  • Tucker from Red vs. Blue does this after he gets his sword, saying either "swish" or "stab" for either sort of attack. He only knows those two.
    • "What's to understand about swish, swish, stab?"
  • Egoraptor's series Girlchan in Paradise parodies this to no end. Shiken-batsu-baku-matsu-hatsu-datsu technique!
  • Parodied in the Siblings cartoon "Half Beard": Rob shouts "HALF BEARD, GO! FORM OF...HALF OF MY BEARD!" (complete with Speed Stripes) in his beardy duel with Rival, only to make his half beard float around the latter.


Web... COMIIIIIICS!!

  • Darkbolt: Everyone does the anime-style attacks with booming vocals.
  • El Goonish Shive got "anime-style martial arts", so it's given.
    • In an early strip, when Elliot attacks the Goo for the first time, he uses a ridiculous name for an equally ridiculous attack.
    • After he defeats it later, Tedd points out that he forgot to shout out a "pointless Japanese name" for the last attack he used; mortified, Elliot asks for a do-over.
    • Later in the series, Elliot's female duplicate, Ellen, gets it right during the second fight with the Goo.
  • Order of the Stick does this, as parody, for both spells and special combat maneuvers, having characters ironically shout out "Sneak attack!" and the like (which is fine as the other person failed their spot check), and, after a "Great cleave!" attack is used overly much, snickering about great cleavage.
    • Subverted and lampshaded later by Elan's evil twin Nale, when he performs a Sneak Attack without calling it out, then says "Oops, I was supposed to say 'Sneak Attack' there, wasn't I?"
    • Also subverted by V calling his attack without actually casting anything.
      • Also, due to the spell-casting mechanics, magic users apparently have to call all their attacks.
    • Haley was drawn into combat with a group of thieves who have a tendency to yell out "Sneak Attack!" when they perform a sneak attack. With the introduction of a fighter class mook, said mook yells out "Power Attack!" when he attacks and is immediately informed that he shouldn't yell out his attacks. The fighter then complains that the rogues get to yell out things when they attack.
    • One strip reveals that the 10 minute casting time for a certain spell is spent simply chanting the name of the spell over and over.
    • SMITE EVIL!
    • TURN UNDEAD!!!
    • Power word: Stun is described as a single word, naturally when Vaarsuvius casts it s/he simply yells STUN.
  • This Commissioned strip [dead link] "Fur Thong Ninja vs Cthulhu Ninja Zombie" parodies this, calling all the attacks and defences, including "The Stab on the Road to Madness!" and "Mandatory Crotch-Exposing Opening Strike Leap Of Doom!"
  • The Adventures of Dr. McNinja
  • Both played straight and subverted in Molten Blade. The second time Fred tries this, his target hears him in time to dodge the attack.
  • In Antihero for Hire, Baron Diamond takes this to absurd extremes, with "Diamond Knuckle" ("That's just a regular punch!"), "Diamond Pivot", "Diamond Wall Grabbing Move," and so on in that vein.
    • Lampshaded beautifully: At one point Shadehawk sincerely thanks Baron Diamond for yelling "DIAMOND DRILL" before using said move on him, specifically stating that if Diamond hadn't called the attack, it would have hit Shadehawk and killed him. Yeah, Shadehawk won that fight.
  • Played straight during fight sequences in Circumstances of the Revenant Braves but also parodied by Sol, who calls out various attack names, both as ShoutOuts and just at random during other parts of the story.
  • Gold Coin Comics does this all the time, when a character is about to use a special skill or spell.
  • Cardboard Tube Samurai does this at least once in Penny Arcade, at the end of "Cardboard And Steel".
  • Mocked in Exterminatus Now - "BEAM SWORD HURL ATTACK!"

Lothar: Shoryuken!
(a spectator): Nerd!

Tentacle Demon: (to captives) Anybody up for a game of Monopoly or something while we wait for her to finish shouting the name of her ultimate attack?

Zoe: You gave me enough time to set a trap. A little trap I like to call ... MISSILE BARRAGE!

"Falcon Sleep! Falcon Sleep! Falcon Sleep!"
"Falcon Sneak! Falcon Sneak!"

    • Obviously, that one didn't turn out too well.
  • Bob and George "Flaming pink dragon kidney punch"
  • In Goblins characters have often been seen calling their spells. It turns out, however, that in the Thuntiverse, you HAVE to call your spells for them to work - Kore cannot use Lay On Hands when his throat is... incapacitated... without a great struggle.
  • Rodney calls every one of his attacks in Raven's Dojo. His attacks are especially over-the-top, like the Skull In Colon or the Face-kick-junk-punch.
  • "Indentured Players" in Alien Dice are apparently required to command themselves to make moves. Lexx calls out every move or power he or his dice use, even when his move-calling could potentially tip the battle in his foe's favor.
  • Done under the influence of large amounts of drugs in Girl Genius

Zola: Chophead Tinybits!

Luke: "Gomu Gomu no ROCKET!!!!"
Cory: "Luke, What have I told you about Calling Your Attacks?

Aki: Hey Lyle, why do you always yell the name of your powers?
Lyle: Well, everyone else gets to make lots of noise with their guns. I feel left out.

Web... ORIGINAAAAAAL!!

  • In the podcast audio drama The Account, being knighted grants a person a number of special abilities, among them a "weapon" of magical energy that's traditionally named and proclaimed when it's used. The protagonist's is Burst Punch, which more experienced knights find a tad lame.
  • The web fiction serial Dimension Heroes makes fun of this trope in one scene where Rob tells his fellow Dimensional Guardians that they must make up attack names to shout out while in battle. When asked why, he's unable to give a good reason. He then asks the much more experienced warrior Wyn why he does it. The Guardians wait intently for the warrior's response, and are subsequently disappointed when he mutters simply, "Because it's cool."
  • In Sapphire, Psychics do this sometimes, often in their native language. For example, the call for Boris's Blood Rose attack is "Krov' roza", which is in fact Russian for its own name.
  • An inversion happens in the Strong Bad email episode "hremail3184", when Strong Bad hits Homestar with a rake, a shovel and a garden weasel, and it's Homestar who shouts "Rake", "Shovel" and "Weasel" upon being hit.
    • There's also Stinkoman and his trademark "Double Deuce!" attack.
  • The sprite films of Paul Robertson are FULL of this in Affectionate Parody. It was taken to its most ridiculous extreme in his (clearly) early production, Hyper Parsnip Bitches. It all culminates in this (more or less, it's hard to understand anything):

Mortimer: Your bullets have little to no effect on me.
Junesake: How about some of this!? [impossibly long attack name name]

  • record scratch* GUARDED!

Mortimer: Heh heh heh heh, [impossibly long attack name] has NO effect on me! You should've realized I was wearing a [impossibly long attack name] defense shield!

Alysia Perez: "PYRO MAELSTROM!"
Megumi Miyazaki: "METEOR CRUSH!"

  • Whateley Universe example: In two different stories, when the ninja Five-Bad Band attack, their leader constantly calls out his signature Ki attacks. Lampshade Hanging ensues, because Chaka is learning the moves as fast as the ninja is calling them out.
    • Since then Chaka has been using a wide variety of called, anime-style attacks, including C Haka Chaka Bang Bang, a ki-blast, and her Kiai attack, which is a calling attack. For christmas she recieved a pair of power gloves which supercharge one attack per day, and that attack must be called.
  • Sam G of Avatar Adventures has a tendency to do this for incredibly menial things; for example:

"Sam Art: Darkness Needles!!!" Sam yelled, prodding a Combine in the eye with the blunt end of a pencil.

Aimee: Hailey, you mind not giving each of your attacks a name? It sounds....stupid....


Western... ANIMATIOOOOOON!!

  • Inspector Gadget's command of "Go, Go Gadget--(insert gadget name)" could count; he's warning people that he's about to activate a gadget, knowing full well that it might not work according to plan...
    • This would actually be a subversion, since whenever Gadget actually needed a gadget to work, it didn't. So he would call his attack, only to attack in a different way, and fail nonetheless.
  • In the Jackie Chan Adventures cartoon series, the villain Hak Foo flambouyantly parodies this trope by inventing names for every action he takes, combat or otherwise; in hindsight, the names really are just flowery similes describing the action in question.
    • "Lion Slaughters Two Lambs!" (kicking two heroes aside to grab the talisman they were leaping for)
    • "Bunny Flees From Vicious Jackals--!" (running away scared)
    • "Snake Cuts Grass!"
    • One of his most recurring lines is "Angry Crow Takes Flight!" any time he so much as jumps.
      • Uncle: "Thank you for sharing, Angry Crow!" (counters Hak Foo's attack)
    • "Flying Monkey Snatches Magic Box!" - Not an attack; he was just announcing what he was seeing.
    • Lampshaded and subverted even during his debut episode, where he called "Elephant Thrusts Its Leg...!" but then delivered a punch when his opponent was anticipating a kick. (Since elephants are quadruped, their front legs correspond to arms, so the simile still works)
    • During one episode set in space, when he discovers his momentum hampered by the lack of gravity, he adjusts his attack names accordingly. "Tiger Prowls! ...through ... pudding...?" (slow motion punch)
    • When the dark Chi wizard Daolon Wong turned him into a Dark Chi Warrior, he also powered up his attack names accordingly -- "Phoenix Flies To Moon!" and "Meteor Brings Mass Extinction!" during a jumping attack, for example.
    • And in another Lampshade Hanging, while executing a large series of attacks against Tohru, Tohru interrupts with "What was that last part?" Hak Foo halts to repeat the attack names and ends up slammed for his efforts.
    • At one point, after being on the receiving end of some of these attacks, Jackie parodied it with a line of his own: "Baboon Leaves Tuckus Exposed".
  • In the Legion of Super Heroes animated series ep "Champions", Jo Nah (a.k.a. Ultra Boy, who has all of Superman's powers but only one at a time) calls out his powers as he activates them so viewers can know what the hell he's doing, straddling the line between this trope and By the Power of Greyskull.
  • A good half of the dialog that occurs in a typical episode of Xiaolin Showdown consists of various characters calling their elemental attacks and shouting out the names of the various Shen Gong Wu. Justified in the case of the latter since saying the name of the Wu is what activates its powers.
    • In later seasons, largely starting when Chase Yung enters the picture, Omi in particular begins to call his nonmagical attacks as well, since Chase teaches him how to do it. The most famous one is "Repulse the Monkey" which is Chase's, and later Omi's, signature move (indeed, at one point Omi realises that someone is allied with Chase when he uses Repulse the Monkey), but later on the moves become more ridiculous, with such moves as "Grasshopper doing Doggy-Paddle", "Dogs Playing Poker" and "Spider doing the Hokey-Pokey".
    • Ah, yes. "Sparrow Eating Hot Dog". Good times... good times...
      • Which ironically is a parody/subversion: it was random gibberish designed to confuse Chase Yung.
  • One of the oldest western examples is Hanna-Barbera's Peter Potamus and his "Hippo Hurricane Holler". In this case, the call is the attack, but still...
  • Parodied in Avatar: The Last Airbender.
    • When the gaang are sparring, Sokka tries to get Aang from behind (who can tell he's there anyway) while yelling "Yaaaaaaaaw, SNEAK ATTACK!" to be instantly blocked by Aang who responds, "Sokka, sneak attacks don't work if you yell it out loud."
    • There was also the very poorly performed bit where Katara pretended to be an Earthbender, and when Aang lifted up a rock, she yelled "Earthbending Style!" It even had the background made of streaks.
    • And then in The Ember Island Players, the actor playing Katara destroyed fem!Aang's magic bubble with the words "Waterbend: Hiyah!"
  • In Sequel Series The Legend of Korra's "A Leaf in the Wind" Korra sincerely tries to invoke this, with no success:

'Korra: "Airbend!" *performs form at newspaper* "What is wrong with me? Airbend!"

"Hit! Uppercut! Uppercut! Jab, jab!"

  • On Swat Kats, Razor would usually shout out the missile being fired, as he fired it, even if it wasn't a new one. Though that could be justified because of the nature of some of their missiles so T-Bone would know what not to do maneuver-wise to keep from disrupting it.
  • The characters in Huntik: Secrets & Seekers do this whenever they cast a spell or call out a titan.
  • The Powerpuff Girls (usually the leader Blossom) call out group attacks like Acrobattack, Cherry Bomb, and Furious Flaming Feline, obviously so the others know what attack they're using.

Blossom:Attack Pattern Alpha Omega Atari! Go!

  • On Code Lyoko, Ulrich will often shouts "Impact!" when hitting a monster with his sword. Odd fires his "Lazer Arrows!" and Aelita her "Energy Field!" while calling said names—though it isn't obligatory. The exception is Yumi, who maybe said "Telekinesis..." once in Season 1 and never bothered afterward.
  • In Defenders of the Earth, the Phantom frequently calls on "The Power of 10 Tigers" before performing a feat of great strength.
  • Spider-Man mock-calls his attack when Storm does this.

Storm: "Power of lightning, strike again!"
Spider-Man: "Um... Power of web-shooters, get real sticky!"

  • HASSAN CHOP!
  • Captain Planet and the Planeteers: The Planeteers had to say their element in order to activate their rings. Of course, this happened whether they actually wanted to use them or not, such as when Wheeler off-handedly said "fire" and a small fire broke out.
  • Amazo from Young Justice has to say the name of whatever Justice League member whose powers it has copied before it can use them. Given that Amazo is a robot, and that this was his first ever appearance within the continuity of the show, this is more understandable than most examples. Although this provides a clue to Amazo's weakness, and the team use that to defeat it.
  • In King of the Hill, Dale Gribble was known to do this when he was defending ("pocket sand!"), escaping ("squirrel tactic!") or sort of attacking ("monkey style!").
  • Finn from Adventure Time seems to enjoy this trope quite a bit:
    • "Get ready for an uppercut, you DOG!"
    • "All aboard the knuckle-train to fist planet!!"
    • Jump-kick! Psych, it was a punch!
    • Vampire kick!
  • In The Fairly OddParents: Channel Chasers, Timmy and Vicky end up in an Anime style show and do this with every attack. Cosmo and Wanda also do it for several things. Apparently, it's just how that universe works.


Real... LIIIIIIFE!!

  • According to the Other Wiki, Wong Fei Hung "was known to state the names of the techniques he used while fighting."
  • Pilots of Western Air Forces typically call out warnings when launching weapons. A call of "Fox Two!" for example, warns nearby friendly aircraft that the pilot has fired an infrared guided missile.
    • Although, considering that only friendlies and not hostiles can hear the radio calls, there is considerably less risk of warning the enemy of what's going on. Apparently this doesn't translate to the less realistic flight sims, though, where every aircraft seems to be broadcasting on the guard (public) channel.
    • If we count the command to fire, then most modern vehicular weapons would apply, although the call is meant to be heard by the vehicle crew and accompanying friendly troops. Sometimes, the last thing heard on the radio before everything is drowned out by exploding shells/rockets/missiles is a calm voice on the radio: "Commence firing".
  • "Fire in the hole!" Translation: something's about to explode real soon, so you'd best find some cover and block your ears.
    • And the related "Frag out!" when throwing a hand grenade.
    • Inverted with "Grenade!", which is your buddy calling the enemy's attack when he spots something small, round and explodey headed in your direction.
    • Also inverted for "Reloading!" and any variations; you're informing others that you're currently unable to attack because your weapon is out of ammo.
    • According to the other wiki, in some states, one has to announce the intent to use deadly force before they can legally be justified fighting back in self defense against an attacker.
  • Comedian Dan Cummins does a sort of variation of this. When telling jokes he sometimes provides the names of them at the end, though this is sometimes simply to extend the joke.

IN...'''DEEEEEXXXX!!

  1. ↑ It's Rachel. She can make ordering tea the most badass thing ever.
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